MacFarland, Bruce Alan Obituary

MacFarland, Bruce Alan attended Elk Grove High School in Elk Grove, CA. View the obituary, post a memory, or share a photo about Macfarland, Bruce Alan.

Graduation Year	(unknown)
Date of Passing	Jul 15, 2014
About	Year of Graduation Unknown - 76? MacFARLAND, Bruce Alan Born August 12, 1958 to William "Bruce" and Delores MacFarland, passed away suddenly and peacefully on July 15, 2014 in Boston, MA at the age of 55. He grew up in Elk Grove, attending Elk Grove schools where he was active in sports, including baseball, football, and track, winning several medals in track. He became interested in cars at an early age, racing his go-cart at local tracks. Later he helped his father and friends rebuild a super modified race car which they raced at West Capitol Raceway in West Sacramento. His love of cars and racing led him to meet sprint car driver Shannon Newton in 2004 and he instantly became part of his race team even working as crew chief through the years. In 2009, Bruce moved into the Newton home where he was not just a tenant, he was family. On Sundays Bruce could always be found at his dad's house, in the shop, working on his BMWs or building and fabricating aftermarket parts for early BMW auto enthusiasts, which he sold and shipped all over the world through his own business, MacFarland Performance. He was a member of the E21 Legion where according to other members, he was described as "incredibly kind, generous, giving, knowledgeable, friendly, sincere, legend, helpful, down to earth, friend, a good man, always a smile on his face, organized the local BBQ and always went all out for the E21 community, willing to help out with his advice, time, tools, and even his family's garage, well respected internationally as well as domestically, brother of our community." In 1998, he began working as a welder fabricator for The Plank/NES Company, which later was acquired by United Rentals. Bruce impressed his new boss right from the start. Through the years his skills and work ethic were i nvaluable to the company. He was always the first to volunteer to stay late or work on Saturday. His boss relied on him for emergencies and after-hours calls. His skill and dedication led him to be one of the first of only six in the company to be offered the position as Senior Welder. This new responsibility was to train new welders by traveling to facilities throughout the country and holding training classes in regards to welding instruction, proper safety protocol and to share his knowledge and experience with other employees. It was his responsibility to create a culture of safety and help ensure other employees created quality and reliable work. He was in Boston to teach one of these classes when he passed away. Bruce was proud of his skills as a welder and mechanic and always willing to use those skills to help out others. He was always there to lend a hand to help anyone and always with a smile. There was never a family gathering that he was not a part of. Bruce is survived by his father, also known as Bruce MacFarland of Wilton, CA, brothers Rance (Marcie) MacFarland of Georgetown, CA and Scott (Staci) MacFarland of Sacramento, CA, sisters Kathleen Pico of Placerville, CA and Karen (Mike) O'Toole of Bellevue, NE, and his god-daughter Grace Owens along with many nieces, nephews, great nieces and nephews and friends. He was preceded in death by his mother Delores MacFarland. A celebration of Bruce's life will be held on Saturday, August 9, 2014 at 1:00 p.m. at the home of Bruce's father at 11201 Mann Road in Wilton, California. - Information from the Sacramento Bee