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Bruce Burnham

Date of Death: March 18, 2025

Date of Birth: May 3, 1939

Biography:

Bruce Burnham passed away on March 18th, 2025, in Brunswick, ME, after a lengthy battle with COPD.

He was born in Newton, Mass, the second of six children of Constance and Ralph Burnham. He attended Lexington schools, then the University of Massachusetts, where he majored in German. Following graduation, he enlisted in the US Army, where he served two years doing USGS work for the Engineering Corps.

After his stint in the Army, Bruce embarked on a jaunt that became a three-year trip traveling around Europe and the Middle East by motorbike, an adventure that was a highlight of his life. He worked odd jobs in the winters - including as a ski lift operator, a telephone cable installer, and a dishwasher -- and jaunted from Germany to Libya to Sweeden to Beirut.

After returning to New England, Bruce worked in a variety of technical roles. He did some trucking. In later years he drove a school bus. He spent several summers in the early 80’s volunteering on western state environmental projects like riverbank cleanups. He got a master’s in forestry from the University of New Hampshire… just because forestry interested him.

As mentally gifted as he was, Bruce’s life choices made clear that his passion was never professional advancement but rather free time to pursue his curiosity, and time to spend in nature on Birch Island, ME, where for many years he was the first resident to arrive early in the spring and the last to depart in the fall. He proudly served as the island’s Fire Chief, and for many years as the island’s Water Commissioner, maintaining and improving the island’s communal water system.

Bruce loved, on the one hand, nature and critters, and on the other, machines and data; the purr of a cat and the purr of a well-tuned engine both warmed his heart. He was both absurdly logical and wonderfully silly. He excelled at logic and word puzzles, but he also loved a good practical joke or bit of dry humor. Bruce could teach a master class on being non-wasteful. He was the beloved ‘fun uncle’ for many nephews and nieces, the one who taught them to enjoy tromping through the woods, listening to bird calls, and shooting guns.

Bruce is survived by his younger sister Abigail and his younger brother Scott, as well as nephews, nieces and many friends who loved him dearly. He would be happy to have any donations in his memory sent to environmental organizations such as Defenders of Wildlife or the Natural Resources Defense Council.