Robert. Bruce Adams

– Robert "Bruce" Adams, 66, died Sunday, Feb. 16, 2014, at

St. Patrick Hospital of complications following three years of treatment for pancreatic cancer. Although his body betrayed him, his enormous spirit continues to endure.

Bruce was born on Aug. 15, 1947, to John and Elizabeth (Houghton) Adams in Detroit, and grew up in Toledo, Ohio. He graduated from Roy Start High School in 1965 and attended the University of Toledo before enlisting in the Air Force in 1967.

With Air Freight Services, Bruce served two Vietnam tours, and was stationed near Madrid prior to honorable discharge in 1971. He credited his military service with teaching him to fiercely advocate for inclusion, for understanding and respect, for the richness of diversity and toward building capacity for peace.

The G.I. bill helped Bruce complete a B.S. in special education/industrial arts at Bowling Green University in 1975. He taught at Wood Lane School (Bowling Green) for people with developmental disabilities, helping start a Special Olympics program and making lifelong friends.

Restless, Bruce pursued an associate's degree in forestry at Hocking Tech (Nelsonville, Ohio) from 1977-1979 where he met Tim and Jan Love (Kalispell). Bruce then set out on vagabond adventures.

Bruce reported for duty at Fourth of July Creek, Sawtooth Valley, Idaho, Forest Service Work Center to work trail crew in the summer of 1980. He soaked knowledge from lifelong friends he made there. Jim Holcomb taught Bruce about hiking, mountain biking, fly fishing, Nordic and alpine skiing. Jim McClatchy shared woodworking skills. Ann Erickson laughed along and joined Bruce for many outings. Jeff and Deb Bitton, Mystic Saddle Ranch Wilderness Outfitters in Stanley, taught Bruce packing skills. With Bob Jonas of Sun Valley Trekking, Bruce guided expeditions – skiing, kayaking and hiking – in the Sawtooths, Yellowstone and Alaska.

Bruce met Ken and Heather Britton (Huson; Pray) at Sawtooth National Recreation Area. He became part of their family, "uncle" to their three children. The easy manner of Bruce's quiet exchange made him a welcome visitor at their home. Bruce valued the sense of family, the place at the dinner table and the fresh-baked cookies he found there. Ken and Bruce played rec hockey together and on opposing teams. The Brittons shared Bruce's love of Nordic skiing and witnessed the growth of his walrus-tusk mustache icicles during a cold Boulder Mountain Nordic race, the race that inspired Bruce to create "weenie warmers" to protect the male appendage from cold.

In late 1980s, Bruce thought he'd found love with Chris Quinn and decided to commit. Chris left Idaho to attend nursing school in Salt Lake City, and Bruce followed her. He found work at Brighton Nordic track and guided yurt-to-yurt backcountry ski trips in the Wasatch. Bruce picked up construction work, fished commercially in Alaska, and guided ski trips in Idaho and Utah. Things with Chris didn't work out, and Bruce wanted to settle into something more serious. With a teaching fellowship from the University of Utah, Bruce worked with underprepared students, earning his M.S. in educational studies (1989).

At the "U" Bruce met his soulmate, Heather Bruce, in a feminist theory seminar. The only male in class, Bruce was less interested in feminism than in interacting with wildly intelligent women. Bruce credited graduate school with teaching him the intellectual side of commitments to diversity and to fierce advocacy for women to assert strong voice and courageous spirit and not defer to men.

Bruce and Heather guided students toward teacher certification and became good friends. As Heather finished the Ph.D., Bruce worked as Academic Support Counselor at Rowland Hall-St. Mark's Preparatory School (RHSM). The administration, eager to hire a strong male role model, insisted that Bruce cut his hair. Bruce refused; they hired him anyway. He brought great spirit, clear judgment, and compassionate advocacy to the students with whom he worked. He was a deeply loved colleague, friend, mentor and teacher. At RHSM, Bruce mentored Heather's sons, Dylan and Justin Brunjes, among countless other students who credited Bruce with getting them through high school.

Ready to elevate attention to committed love along with his devotions to never pass on a rising fish nor fail to ski a clear line, Bruce and Heather married in 1997 on Bruce's 50th birthday. For two years, Heather commuted between Salt Lake City and Tacoma, Wash., while teaching at the University of Puget Sound to spend weekends with Bruce. Bruce continued at RHSM and honed his woodworking skills. In 1998, Heather's diagnosis of breast cancer moved Bruce to Tacoma in support. Not one that liked rain in Tacoma, Bruce still built abiding friendships. His biking pals – Gordon Jackson and Nancy Bristow, Skip Durham, Rob Wells and Mary Ellen Hughes – and his fishing buddy, Bill Barry, along with dear friends, Jennice and Howard King and Suzanne Holland and Deborah Rosen, became family and support while Bruce and Heather journeyed back and forth from Missoula for his treatment at Virginia Mason in Seattle.

In 2000, Heather took a faculty position with the English Department at the University of Montana; Bruce was ecstatic to move to Missoula where the fly fishing is par excellence and Pattee Canyon Nordic trails are close by. Bruce was self-employed as a fine woodworker, leaving a lasting legacy in the homes of numerous friends and clients. He built enduring friendships with a community of gifted woodworkers with whom he shared both soul and talent. Bruce fell in love with the home and shop he and Heather built in Upper Miller Creek. Although he was tough on rodents and other kinds of pests, he created a warm community among our neighbors.

Bruce also dedicated time to investigating his project, "Men and Love." He interviewed men and boys to discover why it is so difficult to express love and affection. Always a loyal and insistent friend, a man of high moral character and righteousness, a dedicated teacher and coach, a man with insatiable curiosity, an easy going and mellow soul, Bruce loved Dylan and Justin as his own and admired the wonderful men they had grown to become. He cherished Dylan's wife, Shere and Justin's wife, Antoinette Russi, "beauties" and "keepers" both. Bruce was captivated with our granddaughters, Ileana, Anaïs and Lucia.

Bruce admonished us to live with honesty and courage, to be more conscious at the end of the day than at the start, to be a good friend and to find ways to live larger, with more embracing, open and inclusive hearts.

Bruce is survived by his wife, Heather Bruce; stepsons, Dylan Brunjes (Shere) of Salt Lake City and Justin Brunjes (Antoinette) of Zuoz, Switzerland; sisters, Lynne Adams (Dennis Loxton) and Kay Adams Gerken (Ron) of Toledo; niece Heather Rahman and grandniece Ryleigh as well as granddaughters, Ileana, Anaïs (Justin and Toni) and Lucia (Dylan and Shere) and countless friends.

A celebration of life is planned for Aug. 9 at the home of Jill Perelman in Ovando. Bruce wanted friends and family to gather in the spirit of celebration on a warm day in a beautiful, mountainous setting. And so it will be. In lieu of flowers, we request that donations be made in Bruce's honor to the following: Southern Poverty Law Center's "Teaching Tolerance" fund; Clark Fork Coalition; Five Valley's Land Trust; or the Missoula Nordic Ski Club.
Read Robert. Adams's Obituary and Guestbook on www.missoulafuneralhomes.com.