George Bruce Douglas III ’55

Bruce Douglas, son of George B. Douglas Jr. ’31, was born in Passaic, N.J., Jan. 20, 1933, and died Dec. 30, 2012, at home in Chevy Chase, Md., from complications of Parkinson’s disease.

A civil engineering major at Princeton, Bruce joined Key and Seal and roomed at 112 Henry Hall with Roger Barr and Harold Elsasser.

Bored by his job at Bethlehem Steel, Bruce cast about and discovered that transportation planning was his true calling. His deepest interest came to be forecasting travelers’ responses to changes in the transportation network and land-development patterns; he worked on transportation corridor and regional-planning studies around the country.

Bruce’s motto on Parkinson’s was “accommodation without surrender.” Though he would have liked to work longer, the disease slowed him down so that he retired at age 69.

Beginning with playing the trombone and euphonium as a teenager, and continuing in the Triangle orchestra, Princeton Band, Main Line Symphony, and the Rockville (Md.) Concert Band, music was central to Bruce’s life despite rotator-cuff problems and Parkinson’s.

Bruce is survived by his wife, Penny; sister Jean Cadle; his children, Jean Havrilla, George B. IV, Laura Priddy, Ian Douglas, Meredith Neal, and Chris Campbell; 13 grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren. To them all, the class extends sympathy.