Trap Shooting
Inducted Class of 2013
It was said of Bruce that when he hit a clay pigeon he would ‘smoke them’ meaning that he hit them dead on and they would disappear like a puff of smoke. It was this accuracy that helped him capture the New York State Trapshooting Championships in 1953 at the age of twenty three, the youngest person to ever accomplish this feat. He was both the High Overall and All-Around Champion that year. He also won the prestigious “High Life” trophy and his three day total was 451 out of 500.
In 1955 Bruce won the NYS Preliminary Handicap Championship by hitting 99 out of 100 clay pigeons. (In handicap events the shooters stand farther away, between 16 to 20+yards, from the trap house. The greater the shooters ability, the farther back they stand). In 1957 won the Northeastern Grand American Champion title in Vandalia, Ohio shooting 97 out of a 100. Bruce also competed and won awards in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Florida, and Canada. After he won in 1957 he gave up shooting for 42 years to raise a family and run his business, Windsor Heating and Cooling, and send his children to college. He returned to the sport in 2000 and continued to compete despite physical challenges. In 2007 he won the Northeastern Grand American Senior Vet Handicap Trapshooting event at the age of 80 years old, fifty years after he won his last championship event.
Bruce attended Geneva High and with his wife Sallie raised two sons and a daughter in Geneva. They have seven grandchildren. He has been a Boy Scout leader for several years and participated in the Montezuma hunting program for area youths. He was a charter member of both the Geneva Conservation Club and the Seneca Lake Duck Hunters Association. An avid hunter, Bruce is also a life member of the National Wild Turkey Federation and the National Rifle Association.