M. Bruce FitzGerald

Martin Bruce FitzGerald passed away on July 13, 2024, at Aegis Ventura from complications of dementia. He was 91 years old.

Known in his first five years as Bill (long story) and thereafter as Bruce, Dad was born in Long Beach in 1933 and grew up in Inglewood, graduating from Dorsey High School. His mother, Lilly Letitia Sawle (known as Tish), was an art teacher before becoming a stay-at-home mom and his dad, Paul Nicholas FitzGerald (known as Pat), was a salesman for Shell Oil, eventually becoming a marketing vice-president. Bruce and his older brother, Scott, were close growing up.

Bruce was a natural born engineer, earning a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Stanford University (’55) where he was a member of Kappa Alpha fraternity. He remained a proud alumnus throughout his life. At Stanford he met and married Joan Marian Hadenfeldt.

After college Bruce and Joan moved to Oxnard when he was employed at Naval Air Station Pt. Mugu designing missile systems. Bruce once knew every missile in the display at the Pt. Mugu base entrance and worked on most of them. His older daughter, Brooke, was born in Oxnard.

In 1957 the family moved to Santa Barbara when Bruce was employed at GE Tempo working on missile and rocket design, including for the Mercury and Apollo manned space missions. His younger daughter, Tracy, was born in Santa Barbara. In the mid-1960s he designed and built a rustic ranch-style home for the family on a chaparral-covered lot on Romero Canyon Road in Montecito. Bruce and Joan divorced and he eventually remarried and divorced.

When the aerospace industry bottomed out in the early 1970s, Bruce switched to medical products, figuring that sector was less likely to be hit by economic downturns. He was head of product development and marketing for obstetrics, gynecology, and urology at Heyer-Schulte (now Mentor) in Goleta. Among other accomplishments there he participated in design refinement for the Jackson-Pratt drain, a common post-surgical device. Besides product design and marketing, his subsequent work in the medical products field included obtaining FDA approval for new products and designing product manufacturing lines and product packaging.

Bruce was very proud of his Irish heritage and the trajectory of the family from famine-ravished Ireland, through the mining towns of Cripple Creek and Tonopah, to professional success in California—the American Dream achieved through hard work, native intelligence, and Irish charm, all of which he displayed in abundance.

Throughout his life Bruce was a “car guy.” He got his first car at 13 (crashed it, of course) and learned all the ins and outs of automobiles and motorcycles such that our family cars never went to the shop– he could fix any vehicle. Favorite autos included: his first car, a black 1939 Ford Deluxe split window coupe; “Marty,” his fully-restored Silver Blue 1965 Mustang Fastback; a metallic mauve (non-factory color) Jaguar Mark X sedan; and a Torch Red 2004 Ford Thunderbird convertible. He was something of a motorcycle horse trader in his later years, with always at least three bikes in his garage. Dad also did woodworking and welding besides fixing anything that needed it around the house.

We had countless hours with Dad exploring the Santa Barbara back country on any dirt road or hiking trail, the natural hot springs being a favorite destination. There were epic road trips with us girls, including a family roots journey to Tonopah, Nevada, and a 1971 expedition in his 1964 Sierra Blue Jeep Wagoneer to the tip of Baja and back.

In retirement, motorcycle trips throughout California with his son-in-law, Ev, were a highlight, especially because Dad was free to enjoy as many frijoles as he liked. He piloted his small cabin cruiser on San Francisco Bay and enjoyed travel all over the world. His curiosity was boundless. Every back road and byway were worthy of exploration, especially if lined with wild blackberry bushes.

Bruce was a sweet and loving father, never pigeon-holing us with stereotypical expectations, always with a twinkle in his eye, ready for fun and adventure. He was an excellent provider but more importantly he gave us all unconditional love. He is survived by daughters Brooke Ashworth and her husband Everard Ashworth and Tracy FitzGerald and her husband Douglas MacNeil plus grandchildren Henry Ashworth with partner Isabelle Bautista and Emma Ashworth, sister-in-law Duane FitzGerald and her children and grandchildren.

Dad loved trees. He planted them wherever he settled, 22 of them on a tract house lot in Goleta, oaks surreptitiously planted and watered around his Sausalito condo. If you would like to honor his memory with action, you may plant a tree or donate to Los Padres Forest Watch. He will reside forever in our hearts.