Bruce Mackay Halverson

After celebrating his 82nd Santa Lucia Day and winter solstice with family and loved ones, Bruce Halverson went happily to bed where he died peacefully in the early morning of December 22, 2022. Bruce was born in Bismarck, North Dakota, the only child of Lawrence and Kathryn Halverson. After a short stay in Washington State, the family moved to sunny southern California for health reasons. There, Bruce thrived, working on the family’s poultry farm and running his own successful egg delivery business from a young age. Always a profound thinker, Bruce graduated from Stanford University with a Bachelor’s Degree in American History and then from the University of Hawaii with a Master’s Degree in Eastern Philosophy, learning Sanskrit along the way. As an officer, he studied Chinese in the U.S. Army’s language school in Monterey. Bruce then taught for a brief spell at the University of California at Santa Barbara before getting married to Georgia French and having a son, Joel, to whom he was fiercely devoted for the rest of his life. Bruce later married Valerie Halverson and was stepfather to her children, Mike and Sara. Bruce had a successful career in life insurance and financial consulting, earning a spot on the Million Dollar Round Table, although he would often say that he “retired” at 28 years of age. In fact, Bruce did play much, but also worked hard the last forty years of his life to provide a modest number of safe and affordable boarding rooms to some of the less affluent of Santa Barbara. Bruce lived life to its fullest, enjoying the arts, literature, music (he was a disc jockey at KCSB, presenting “Classical Music, Ancient and Modern”), and nature, leading the local Sierra Club Chapter in a number of important initiatives. Bruce enjoyed traveling to many wonderful places over the last 20 years with his longtime companion, Lillian Salas. Bruce’s life serves as an example to all of us and he will be greatly missed. There will be a memorial service celebrating Bruce’s life at 11am on January 11, 2023 at Live Oak Unitarian Universalist Congregation, 820 N. Fairview Ave., Goleta.