Bruce grew up in Kennard, NE with his father Chester, his mother, Dora and his siblings Don, Lavon, and Neil.

He will be watching over his wife Carol Rosenbaum; his daughter, Barb Michalik and her husband Mark; his daughter, Deb Brockman and her partner Aaron Mixan and her kids: Dakota and Briar and Briar’s fiancé, Jake Schneckloth; his son, Jason Rosenbaum, his wife Lynae and their kids: Matt, Nick, Alex, and Jaylynn.

Bruce was being treated for an aggressive form of cancer when the stroke occurred. Just like his mother, Bruce was given the loving nickname of “ornery”, by the nurses who treated him. Bruce loved to tease, joke and adored when the nurses gave it right back to him.

One of the nurses bet him a steak dinner that he couldn’t get a particular stoic doctor to laugh. The doc was no match for Bruce’s humor. The usually stone faced, doctor burst out laughing within minutes of visiting Bruce. “That was too easy,” Bruce said to the nurse with his signature satisfied grin.

“He was one of the good ones,” “He was a rare find,” “He was a great man”, are the sentiments that are pouring in to his family and we all could not agree more. He truly was the very best husband, father and grandfather, that we could have ever asked for and we feel blessed to have had so many wonderful years with him.

One of Bruce’s wishes was to “make it to 80”. On the eve of his 80th birthday, January 25th 2020, in his usual comedic way, he told his wife Carol that he wanted her to wake him up at midnight so that he knew he made it. Needless to say, she did not wake him up but he did, in fact, “make it to 80”. With much laughter, appreciation and love, Bruce celebrated his 80th birthday with all of his kids and grandkids.

Bruce requested to be cremated. As to carry on his positive and fun nature the family will be holding a celebration of Life Ceremony on Saturday February 8th, 2020 at the Walnut Community Center from 12-4pm. There will be a light lunch, libations and desserts provided. For whomever would like to share a story about Bruce, we will have a public forum at 1pm.

We cannot express enough our gratitude to the Buffet Cancer Center’s caring, knowledgeable and empathetic staff.

Bruce continues to live in the hearts and minds of his loving family and friends.

~~~ Obituary courtesy of the Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Blair Public Library at Blair, Nebraska.~~~