Bruce A. Wallin ’70
Bruce lost his struggle with cancer Dec. 29, 2011.
Bruce prepared for Princeton at Highland Park High School in St. Paul, Minn. A politics major, he ate at Tower Club and graduated cum laude. A stalwart on the Ivy Championship rugby team of 1969, Bruce was universally liked by teammates, who recall how his fluent French helped arrange lifesaving medical treatment for a teammate while at a tournament in Martinique.
The academic life called him to Berkeley for his Ph.D. Bruce then taught at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Cal Fullerton, and, since 1990, Northeastern.
A Fulbright scholar, he published books on revenue-sharing and taxation. Teaching government and finance, he twice won the Northeastern University Excellence in Teaching Award. Remembrances posted by his former students and colleagues reveal a transformative teacher. His enthusiasm and personal energy caused his courses to be oversubscribed and remembered for their intellectual challenge and excitement.
Bruce co-founded the West Roxbury (Mass.) Courthouse Neighborhood Association and coached youth soccer. He also was a source of political commentary for local media.
The class extends sympathy on the loss of this teacher, thinker, writer, mentor, coach, engaged citizen, and family man to Bruce’s wife, Vickie, and daughters Anne and Eva.
Paw in print
July 2026
Architect Tod Williams ’65 *67 reflects on the Obama Presidential Center; rain and revelry at Reunions.
1 Response
Comments
Clifford Steer
2 Weeks AgoRemembering a Friend
I am an old friend of Bruce’s having gone to junior high and high school with him in St. Paul. We are in the process of organizing our 60th high school reunion and I could not help but think of the classmates that we have lost. Bruce was a remarkable student, athlete, and a good friend. In fact, he and I traveled overnight by train to the Grand Lakes Naval Station outside of Chicago when we were both nominated to West Point in our senior year. That trip will always be a wonderful memory. Ironically, we both ended up in academia. I am only sorry that he passed at such a young age; and it is never too late to extend condolences to his family.