Alumni Spotlight – Bruce Bauman ‘67

Alumni interviews generally involve memory-jogging techniques for the purpose of “dragging” information from the subject graduate. This was not the case with Bruce Bauman, whose photographic memory has seemingly retained every moment of his life as a Warrior.

He recalls, for example, that he had main cast roles in Mr. Ruth’s and Mrs. Krumrine’s Junior and Senior Class plays. He even remembers the titles, Meet me in St. Louis and Stage Door. And he’ll tell you that, in the former production, he played John Truitt, the boy next door opposite Bonnie Mitzel, who played the part of Rose Smith, the eldest of the four Smith girls. He remembers the details of his trip with the Latin Club – Quo Vadis – to Punxatawney, PA, who went along, and what they did while there.

Bruce’s affection for the school and area are obvious in his conversations, and his anecdotes are rich, entertaining, and representative of the values that made him an exemplary honor student, active in school government, and class president.

After graduation from Susquehannock, Bruce spent the summer at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, part of a cooperative work program with Drexel University, where he had been accepted into the University’s elite five-year engineering program.

Upon graduation from Drexel in 1972, he joined York-Borg Warner as an engineer in the company’s cooling division, designing variable speed controls, a pioneering technology at the time. In 1979, Bruce left for a brief period, spending two years at FINCOR, only to return to Borg Warner in 1980, to continue integrating new technology into York product lines.

The company had positioned itself as a leader in maritime chillers by the mid 80’s, when the United States Navy began upgrading its weapons and electronics cooling systems. York Borg Warner became a sole-source provider, and Bruce was assigned to the project, a change to an engineering specialty that would define his career. From that point forward – through several changes in corporate ownership – he has been involved in construction and refurbishment of cooling systems for naval vessels of United States and friendly foreign governments. He currently serves as Director of Engineering for York Navy Systems, a division of Johnson Controls, a successor company.

Throughout his busy professional career, Bruce made time to serve the community that he loved in a variety of leadership roles from the time he returned to Glen Rock in 1974. He served on the Glen Rock Recreation Board, Glen Rock Borough Council (as President), the Board of Directors of the York County Solid Waste Authority (President and Treasurer), and as a member of the Southern York County School District Board of School Directors, where he is now Treasurer. And he has been Treasurer of the Trinity United Church of Christ since 1979.

Bruce’s family is a “Susquehannock Family.” He married classmate Deb Klinefelter ’67, and the couple has two children, both Warriors: Daniel ’93 and Susanne ‘95. Deb earned a Masters Degree in Nursing and is currently a Certified Nurse Practitioner and director of York Wellspan’s Congestive Heart Failure Clinic. Daniel lives in Lawrence Kansas and is employed by IBM. Susanne earned a PhD in Biochemistry at Duke University and is currently employed in the “Research Triangle” in Chapel Hill, N.C.

Thanks, Bruce Bauman ’67, for making us Warrior Proud.