Bruce Burkheimer Jan. 3, 1928 – Oct. 9, 2022

By MARK DEVOLDER
Los Alamos

One of the joys of growing older is memories – particularly memories of folks I worked with at LANL.

I began my career at LANL working in Group L-1. At that time, Bruce Burkheimer ran the staff shop, which supported Group L-1. I remember Bruce’s warmth, enthusiasm, and a kind of personal intensity.

He was helpful and instructive when it came to working with shop tools. What came out of this was a career-long respect for technicians at LANL. Similarly, it spawned in me a tremendous respect for both machinists and machine tools. As a result of knowing people like Bruce, I began to think that anything was possible at LANL. All that people needed to do was pick a direction and put in some effort – sometimes quite a bit of effort.

Historically, I have not spent much time reading obituaries. However, Bruce’s obituary stirred up something in me. I have been missing out on some of my best memories!

There are other employees who worked at LANL who are no longer with us (for example, Dawn Moreno, Lauren Rauber, Marv Rich, Shawn Harshbarger, Floyde Smith, Ron Holmes, and Del Law). There are others, too and I need to crank up my brain a bit to recall others. Personalities varied all over the spectrum. Some of these folks were real characters – on and off the job. That is what made LANL such a great place to work.