Bruce was born on June 25, 1929 in Los Angeles California. His parents were Len and Bernice Edney. He grew up in Glendale California, and graduated from Hoover High school in 1947 where he competed in football and track. This was during the period of the Army draft but he was granted an educational draft deferment to pursue an advanced education. With this deferment he continued his education at Glendale Community College and the University of California Berkeley. He was affiliated with the Beta Xi chapter of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity, and was the university champion in the sport of Judo. He graduated in 1952 with a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering. He then received an engineering position in Los Angeles with the McCulloch Motors company. During this time period he met, dated, and fell in love with Janet Haring, a 1949 graduate of cross town Glendale High School. In late 1953 his draft deferment terminated and he was to be drafted into the Army unless he volunteered to be in service with some branch of the Military by December 3, of 1953. He applied for and was accepted by the Navy Officer Candidate School in Newport Rhode Island. He earned his Ensign commission in June of 1954, and was accepted for Flight Training in Pensacola, Florida. Prior to starting his training in Pensacola he and Janet were married in their home town Glendale. After earning his Wings as a Naval Aviator he received advanced flight training in Corpus Christi Texas in the Navy Jets TV-2 and Panther F9F and then received orders to Heavy Attack Squadron VAH-2 at Naval Air Station (NAS) North Island, Coronado, California. A fellow squadron aviator was Edgar Mitchell a future Lunar Module Pilot for Apollo 14.
After completing his required Navy active duty obligation in 1956 he accepted a Production Engineering position with the Honeywell Aero division in Minneapolis Minnesota. He transferred to the Navy Air Reserve at Naval Air Station (NAS) Minneapolis where his squadron flew the Navy Panther Jet. In 1957 he transferred to the Honeywell Ordnance Division in Hopkins Minnesota. In 1959 the Honeywell Seattle Development Lab (SDL) developed the need for a Production Engineer and requested from the Ordnance Division that he be offered that position, which he accepted. Bruce continued his Navy Reserve flying duties with his squadron stationed in NAS Seattle, and NAS Whidbey until his Navy retirement as a Lieutenant Commander. During his active and reserve service Bruce flew 11 different aircraft. In 1956 he received his private pilots license and in 1957 became a qualified commercial pilot in single and multi engine aircraft with an instrument rating. Bruce retired from Honeywell as a Senior Principal Production Engineer in 1994.
During their life in Minnesota Bruce joined a sky diving club headed by a former Army parachutist. He was able go “borrow” a parachute from his Navy Reserve Squadron. The goal was to free fall as far as possible in a spread eagle position before opening their chutes. He eventually obtained a 30 second free fall from 7500 feet before pulling his ripcord at about 1500 feet altitude. He made over 25 free fall jumps.
Bruce and a fellow worker at Honeywell Hopkins explored the shipwreck Madeira in Lake Superior in 1958 with scuba gear where he salvaged a porthole from the wreck.
Bruce and Janet moved to Seattle for SDL in October of 1959. In April of 1960 their son Kenneth was born, and in December of 1962 son Thomas arrived. Both are college graduates - Ken - History, and Tom - Mechanical Engineering. There are 5 grandkids,
Dolan, Nick, Marina (dad Ken) and Jeannie, Ian (dad Thomas). The family participated in student exchange programs with Mexico, and Costa Rica.
Bruce and Janet became active with the Puget Sound Mudsharks skin diving club and hebecame president in 1970. In addition to skin diving they became members of the Taint’s cycling group. Cycling resulted in many trips in Washington, California, Idaho, Vermont, Maine, Oregon, Canada, and overseas, first in England with sons Ken and Tom - age 16 and 13, then with the Taint’s in France, Germany, and Austria.
Bruce and Janet’s bike trip to Germany was unique because Janet as a Northwest Airline agent was able to get discount tickets for their flight from New York to London on the supersonic jet Concorde before joining the rest of the Taint’s. Bruce and Janet also biked over 700 miles as a couple in Denmark, arranging Bed and Breakfast stays as they traveled.
Bruce and Janet also traveled in Alaska, Hawaii, China, Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, Ecuador, Peru, Norway, Iceland, Sweden, Galapagos Islands, Fiji, India, Nepal, Kenya, the Caribbean, Greece, Croatia, and Slovenia.
In 2001 Bruce cycled with Australia’s annual “Big Ride”. This was a 700 mile week long bike ride along the northeast coast south to Sydney. This was normally a daily camping event but Bruce had prearranged several enjoyable overnight stays with local families along the route. A great way to get to know the local folks!
Bruce was an avid runner, cyclist, and swimmer and competed in local running competitions and Triathlons. Many local running competitions were with the Honeywell team. Bruce also completed two half marathons and one marathon. At age 58 he took first place in age group “50 and over” in the Silver Lake Triathlon and also first in this age group in the Seafare Triathlon the following week. He and other Taint’s cyclists rode several of the Seattle to Portland annual 200 mile bike rides.
Bruce was one of over 3000 United States Olympic Torch Bearers for the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, California. Honeywell was generous in sponsoring Bruce and making a $3000. donation for youth activities for this historic event.
Bruce was very active in wood working and building and racing Pinewood Derby Cars.
He built and raced over 60 cars for 10 years in the Adult Division. He built his own race track with a race timer to evaluate his cars performance and comparison to the other racers. Three of his cars were featured in the March 2011 issue of “Pinewood Derby Race Cars magazine” - “Stinger”, “Music on Wheels”, and “Hammerhead”.
He was also active in underwater photography. He designed and built a waterproof Super 8 movie camera housing and a battery powered lighting system. In 1970 he and fellow Honeywell engineer Bill Daly were scuba diving in Edmonds when they discovered a large female Giant Pacific Octopus under a large pipe water outfall in 70 feet of water. She was guarding a very large clutch of octopus eggs. Bruce decided to film and monitor the development of the octopus eggs and try to see when they would hatch. Over the next several months Bruce filmed the Octopus and her eggs with the objective of observing the final release of her eggs into the sea. Bruce documented this project from May to January making 39 dives day and night. Sample strings of eggs were taken and examined with magnification as they developed. Finally in January of 1971 all the strings of eggs were gone and she was obviously no longer alive. She was very large and when measured she was over six feet across. Bruce was selected by the Washington Council of Skin Diving Clubs as the 1970 Underwater Photographer of The Year. He completed his efforts with this octopus experience by producing a 4 minute Super 8 movie with background music titled “Affair With Mrs.“O”. This can be seen on YouTube.com.
Bruce is survived by his sons Kenneth and Thomas, Ken’s wife Nancy and their children Dolan, Nicholas, and Marina, and Thomas’ children Ian and Jeannie.
In lieu of flowers please donate in memory of Bruce Edney to the Abused Deaf Women’s Advocacy Services (ADWAS), https://www.adwas.org/donate/ (In the Comments section please specify that the donation is for the Children’s Program).