David Bruce Rubidge ’53

Bruce was born in Pittsfield, Mass., and grew up in Chatham, N.J. He attended Chatham High School and the Peddie School before coming to Princeton, where he joined Tower Club and majored in history. He wrote his thesis on “The Historical Development of Welfare Capitalism in the United States.” 

After graduation Bruce joined the Navy and spent two years of “rather dull duty” in amphibious forces operating out of Norfolk. He then went to work for IBM selling data-processing equipment and then as an industry-analysis manager in the advanced systems development division. Bruce eventually left IBM to pursue an interest in investing with Kidder Peabody. A few days after our 20th reunion, Bruce moved to Pittsburgh to become president of the Laurel Foundation, a private charitable foundation. 

Bruce then began his own investment advisory business, Rubidge Associates. He moved to Chapel Hill in 1985 and entered the Forest at Duke in 2006. He died there of a stroke May 18, 2020. Bruce was predeceased by his son Bradley ’80, and is survived by his wife, Nell, their son Bill, and their daughter, Cindy.