Bruce Daryl Brown Obituary

Stephen Brown '71 said:

Bruce and I (Steve) liked to bicycle out to HMB and down the coast. I had trouble keeping up with him, he was in such good shape that I finally decided that the only way we'd enjoy our rides together was to weld our bikes together...LOL. So we bought a custom made Jack Taylor tandem racing bicycle. Drove down to LA to pick it up and strapped it to the roll bar on his MG. On the way back we stopped to change a flat tire on a car with 3 girls heading to Sausalito. We met them later that day for an evening of dancing at ZAC'S. Fun times! We rode that tandem alot and made some Century Tours (100 mile rides) with it, making friends along the way. Up hill it was a bit slow but down hill...holy moly! We were the among the first to use helmets in a day when it was not popular nor were there many on the market to buy because that bike could easily do 60 down hill. We both rode motorcycles too, so it was a natural decision.
One summer we went to Yosemite to hike the trail from the high country to the valley. We started the hike around noon, and had only gone a few miles when we met an uphill bound couple who begged us for food, having lost everything to a bear at the start of their trip. We shared our summer sausage and cheese and went on further. Soon we met another group of hikers who also lost their food to bears and begged us for anything we could spare. We shared and moved on only to meet another group with a similar story to tell. We camped that evening and just as we finished our dinner, a bear ran right through our camp! We sat there discussing our options and took all of about a whole minute to decide to not continue due to Bruce's diabetes concerns. We hiked out the next day, being overtaken on the way by another starving group. We gave them the last of our food and bid Tuolumne meadows a not so fond farewell.
Bruce and I enjoyed airshows and airplanes. He took hundreds of pictures of war birds at airshows, but never got into flying. Mostly because his diabetes prohibited him from getting a pilot's certificate. Still though, he enjoyed flying with me in sailplanes and airplanes.
His death came a week after we'd talked about his recent low blood sugar episode, a coma he'd experienced after taking his insulin before eating dinner, then becoming tired and laying down without eating. He promised to be more careful, but not long after he made the same mistake and never woke up. His room mate found him late the next day.
We had many a good time together as adults, but as kids we were like oil and water. His and my frequent low blood sugar episodes caused us to clash many times. Chronic low blood sugar, also known as hypoglycemia, or in both our cases Reactive Hypoglycemia meaning our blood sugar levels were normal until we ate something then start a see-saw up and down process lasting hours with frequent very low levels. Naturally we'd get a bit grumpy when blood sugar levels were low...LOL. The difference between he and I was that his immune system reacted to the excess insulin and therefore frequent low blood sugar by destroying his pancreas. And at the age of 13 he became type one diabetic, while I continued to experience these frequent low blood sugar levels for the next 40 years until I figured out a cure and fixed it in early 2000.
Bruce is buried in Skylawn if you'd like to visit on the way to HMB were we fished and rode alot.

Randy Siepser '73 said:

that's a huge emotional setback for me; i loved bruce very much; great long distance runner, cyclist, musician, friend, bicycle mechanic at Carrier's in burlingame, cycling touring ride leader, A&P mechanic, and course....friend; i remember him and his girlfriend, his buddy, jay camp and his friend, would all pile on over to the house to swim in the pool, pretty much emptying out half the entire pool's water onto the deck with all the splashing, playing, etc....great times...will miss him dearly