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.

Undergraduate Class of 1970