A hilarious way with words

Deepa Bharath

Bruce Hedrick pioneered a fun Fourth of July party in his College

Park neighborhood.

It was just for the residents of three small streets in that area.

Bruce always fired up the grill for an after-parade party, and all

the neighbors joined in. During the parade, he directed traffic with

his whistle. The interesting part was, there was no traffic.

But that was Bruce. Enthusiastic, energetic and extremely funny.

Christmas was another favorite time of the year for Bruce. He

competed with neighbors and ended up stringing at least 5,000 lights

in and around his house. There were so many Christmas trees in

Bruce’s yard that neighbors and friends sometimes thought he was

selling them.

He was a passionate ham radio operator. He carried his antennae

and radio wherever he went. Friends remember him throwing wires and

mounting antennae on trees while camping, or draping them on palm

trees if they were on the beach.

Bruce was also the neighborhood fix-it guy. He retired as a civil

engineer with the County of Orange and the engineer in him always

wanted to fix stuff. He even repaired an antique toaster for a

friend, and attempted to fix her gigantic and ancient coffee

percolator.

But the true love of Bruce’s life was his wife, Bobbie. They were

married for 52 years.

Destiny brought them together in the form of a blind date. He was

a student at Caltech, in Pasadena, and she had just started a job at

a bank. Bruce picked up Bobbie to go to a barnyard dance in a 2-ton

truck with a lot of guys and girls in the back. Bobbie was impressed

-- by the truck and its genial driver.

They married in Las Vegas about two years after that chance

meeting.

Bruce and Bobbie were superficially different. He was quiet and

his humor was subtle. Bobbie is chatty and boisterous. But they

shared a common interest over the last six years or so --

volunteering at the Costa Mesa Police Department.

Bobbie won the department’s Volunteer of the Year Award in 2001,

and Bruce earned it two years after his wife did. Bruce took pride in

his volunteer work. He started off with fingerprinting at the

Westside substation, but later drove around the city in the police

department’s truck looking for parking and other violations.

He volunteered until a week before his death. Bruce did it not

because he was bored, but because he loved the community.

Bruce was a funny guy, but not in a loud, outrageous kind of way.

He wrote limericks and poems. All of his family knows that he gets

some of his funniest thoughts and his best ideas “when he is on the

can.”

He delivered funny roasts at friends’ birthdays and wrote them

heartfelt notes of sympathy. Even the sad ones were laced with his

brand of humor, which was always appreciated by the recipients. It

cheered them up.

Bruce enjoyed playing with words.

His friends still laugh when they think about Bruce’s definition

of a wahine or a Hawaiian woman: “A wahine is something you put on a

buhun with muhustard.”

* DEEPA BHARATH covers public safety and courts. She may be

reached at (949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at deepa.bharath@ latimes.com.