FROM THE "PEOPLE WE WISH WE HAD KNOWN" SERIES
John Campbell Bruce
Noted Newspaperman, Playwright and Author With Roots in DuBois and Helvetia
Former DuBois High School Class Valedictorian
"Escape From Alcatraz"
John Campbell Bruce was born May 6, 1906 in the mining community of Helvetia, Pa., the son of a coal miner foreman who moved his family from town to town in western Pennsylvania, finally settling in Dubois where John Bruce went to high school and was valedictorian of the DuBois High School Class of 1924.
After graduating from DuBois he went to nearby Allegheny College until a friend who was at Stanford University returned from the West Coast during vacation and regaled him with tales of California. Bruce promptly left college and hitchhiked West, stopping "for a month or two in Wyoming to work on a ranch.
He entered San Jose State College in the the mid- 1920s, but soon began moonlighting for various newspapers. He eventually left college and, following the itinerant nature of his Pennsylvania coal mining father, worked for a succession of California newspapers eventually settling with the San Francisco Chronicle. Mr. Bruce's byline, "J. Campbell Bruce," graced Bay Area newspapers for more than 50 years, 33 of them at San Francisco Chronicle, where he was known as a stylish feature writer and a fast and concise newspaper man.
In addition to writing thousands of news articles over the years, Mr. Bruce also wrote the 1963 play "Paint The House White," which was produced at the Pasadena Playhouse; and, in 1954, a book, "The Golden Door: The Irony of Our Immigration Policy." He also wrote numerous magazine articles and television scripts.
During World War II, Mr. Bruce served in China for the United States Office of War Information. After the war, he returned to California and wrote news stories and features for The Chronicle, where he was known as a perfectionist.
He was also a noted lecturer and journalism teacher at the University of California, Berkeley.
"He was fast, he was accurate and he was one of the most conscientious reporters I've known," said retired Chronicle reporter Charles Raudebaugh who knew Mr. Bruce well. "It concerned him greatly if he made what anybody else would consider a normal mistake under the pressure of writing for a daily paper."
In 1979, Clint Eastwood made the movie "Escape From Alcatraz which was based on Mr. Bruce's 1963 bestselling book about three convicts who broke out of the then-federal prison in San Francisco Bay known as "The Rock" and disappeared.
The chapters in Bruce's book describing the daring escape attempts by Frank Morris and two accomplices from the "inescapable" prison became the basis for the movie. Reviewers described the book as an "intriguing and absorbing saga of Alcatraz, whose name is still synonymous with punitive isolation and deprivation, where America's most violent and notorious prisoners resided in tortuous proximity to (San Francisco), one of the world's favorite cities."
Their fate has never been resolved -- no bodies were found and the three men, brothers John and Clarence Anglin and Frank Morris (Clint Eastwood's character) were never found.
In 1989, when NBC's "Unsolved Mysteries" did a special program on Alcatraz, Mr. Bruce told The Chronicle that he believed the three convicts "got away from the island, yes, but they're not alive. If they got away, Frank Morris, the ringleader, could have kept his mouth shut. But the other two were boisterous types, and they couldn't have kept quiet for six months, let alone 27 years."
Distinguished DuBois area native and noteworthy writer J. Campbell Bruce passed away in July of 1996 at age 90.
Based on an article in the San Francisco Chronicle
Submitted by Rich Levine
John Campbell Bruce
Noted Newspaperman, Playwright and Author With Roots in DuBois and Helvetia
Former DuBois High School Class Valedictorian
"Escape From Alcatraz"
John Campbell Bruce was born May 6, 1906 in the mining community of Helvetia, Pa., the son of a coal miner foreman who moved his family from town to town in western Pennsylvania, finally settling in Dubois where John Bruce went to high school and was valedictorian of the DuBois High School Class of 1924.
After graduating from DuBois he went to nearby Allegheny College until a friend who was at Stanford University returned from the West Coast during vacation and regaled him with tales of California. Bruce promptly left college and hitchhiked West, stopping "for a month or two in Wyoming to work on a ranch.
He entered San Jose State College in the the mid- 1920s, but soon began moonlighting for various newspapers. He eventually left college and, following the itinerant nature of his Pennsylvania coal mining father, worked for a succession of California newspapers eventually settling with the San Francisco Chronicle. Mr. Bruce's byline, "J. Campbell Bruce," graced Bay Area newspapers for more than 50 years, 33 of them at San Francisco Chronicle, where he was known as a stylish feature writer and a fast and concise newspaper man.
In addition to writing thousands of news articles over the years, Mr. Bruce also wrote the 1963 play "Paint The House White," which was produced at the Pasadena Playhouse; and, in 1954, a book, "The Golden Door: The Irony of Our Immigration Policy." He also wrote numerous magazine articles and television scripts.
During World War II, Mr. Bruce served in China for the United States Office of War Information. After the war, he returned to California and wrote news stories and features for The Chronicle, where he was known as a perfectionist.
He was also a noted lecturer and journalism teacher at the University of California, Berkeley.
"He was fast, he was accurate and he was one of the most conscientious reporters I've known," said retired Chronicle reporter Charles Raudebaugh who knew Mr. Bruce well. "It concerned him greatly if he made what anybody else would consider a normal mistake under the pressure of writing for a daily paper."
In 1979, Clint Eastwood made the movie "Escape From Alcatraz which was based on Mr. Bruce's 1963 bestselling book about three convicts who broke out of the then-federal prison in San Francisco Bay known as "The Rock" and disappeared.
The chapters in Bruce's book describing the daring escape attempts by Frank Morris and two accomplices from the "inescapable" prison became the basis for the movie. Reviewers described the book as an "intriguing and absorbing saga of Alcatraz, whose name is still synonymous with punitive isolation and deprivation, where America's most violent and notorious prisoners resided in tortuous proximity to (San Francisco), one of the world's favorite cities."
Their fate has never been resolved -- no bodies were found and the three men, brothers John and Clarence Anglin and Frank Morris (Clint Eastwood's character) were never found.
In 1989, when NBC's "Unsolved Mysteries" did a special program on Alcatraz, Mr. Bruce told The Chronicle that he believed the three convicts "got away from the island, yes, but they're not alive. If they got away, Frank Morris, the ringleader, could have kept his mouth shut. But the other two were boisterous types, and they couldn't have kept quiet for six months, let alone 27 years."
Distinguished DuBois area native and noteworthy writer J. Campbell Bruce passed away in July of 1996 at age 90.
Based on an article in the San Francisco Chronicle
Submitted by Rich Levine
