Bruce D. McVey, a former longtime resident of Pacific Palisades, died on February 13 at the age of 87. Bruce was born in rural Turlock, where he and his family experienced the bite of the Great Depression; he was a youngster when electricity finally came to their dairy farm. He attended Turlock High School (class of 1940), Modesto Junior College and UC Berkeley (for a year) before joining the war effort, first building Liberty Ships and then as a Navy radar technician aboard the destroyer USS Willard Keith. While aboard ship in the South Pacific, Bruce invented a key improvement to radar receivers that expanded the useful range of the system. During the battle of Okinawa, his destroyer survived an attack by Japanese torpedo bombers. After the war, Bruce returned to Berkeley to study electrical engineering. He received his bachelor’s degree in 1947 and a master’s degree in 1949. While studying for his master’s, Bruce met Marjorie Patten, who was also a student at Cal studying education. They were married in 1950, and moved to Southern California where Bruce joined the Hughes Aircraft Company as an aerospace engineer and where Marjorie taught elementary and pre-school. Bruce’s career spanned 35 years, during which he led the development and production of radars for such notable aircraft as the F-106 Delta Dart and the F-15 Eagle, as well as imaging radars for strategic and tactical intelligence gathering. He retired from Hughes in 1985. Bruce took time away from engineering to study at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, a graduate theological seminary in the Episcopal Church, from 1959 to 1963, receiving a master’s degree in theology. He elected to serve the church not as an ordained priest but as a layman, and was involved with a number of Bishop’s committees in the Southern California area. In 1963, Bruce and Marjorie settled in the Marquez Knolls area of Pacific Palisades, where they lived until 1999. Bruce greatly enjoyed hiking in the Santa Monica Mountains, and the family joined St. Mathew’s Episcopal Church. Marjorie taught at the Palisades Presbyterian Preschool from about 1971 to 1989. After a brush with heart trouble, Bruce became a regular at the Palisades High track. This came in handy during the Mandeville Canyon fire of October 1978 when roads into the Palisades were blocked, and Bruce, returning from work in Culver City, was forced to make his way on foot up Temescal Canyon from PCH to his family on Akron Street, just as the upper section of the canyon began to burn. After his retirement, Bruce pursued his interest in genealogy and family history. He was chairman of the USS Willard Keith Reunion Association from 1994 to 2006. He and Marjorie moved to Rossmoor in Walnut Creek in 1999 in order to spend more time with family. Bruce is survived by Marjorie, his wife of 60 years; his brother, Elton of Walnut Creek; his sister, Barbara (McVey) Tower of Sonora; his sons, John of San Jose and James of Palo Alto; and his grandchildren, Christopher, Connor and Amanda. A memorial service is scheduled at St. Paul’s Church, Walnut Creek, on March 19 at 2:30 p.m. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Hospice of the East Bay, Operation Homefront, or other charities.
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