With sadness we share the news of the death of Bruce “Bear” Whitehouse, 85, on November 30, 2017, quietly in his sleep in his home in Olympia, WA. Bruce served the diocese in several capacities including Diocesan Council (Class of 1983), the Camp and Conference Board, the Advisory Committee for the Commission on Communications, and the Arrangements Committee of Convention.
Born on September 22, 1932 in Bloomfield, NJ to Harold and Anna Whitehouse, Bruce graduated from Bloomfield High School and served four years in the U.S. Army. He was a member of the 73d Tank Battalion in Korea 1952-53.
In 1955 he married Virginia Shirley “Ginnie” Earle and they raised five children in Sparta, NJ.
In addition to his service at the diocesan level, Bruce was active at St. Mary’s, Sparta as a lay leader and youth leader, was a Paul Harris Fellow in the Rotary Club, and served as a member of the Board of Trustees at Heath Village Retirement Community.
After his retirement in 2002, Bruce and Ginnie moved to Olympia, WA where he immediately became an active member of the community there.
Bruce and Ginnie were active in the theater and performing arts. Bruce’s theater credits include Inherit the Wind, Tiger at the Gates, The Kinsman, 1940’s Radio Hour, and others. He hosted his own Jazz radio program on OKOM radio for many years in New York, called The Bear’s Den.
Bruce is remembered by his family as a man with an active imagination, a kind and generous heart, and a sense of humor as big as the great outdoors.
In addition to his wife Ginnie, Bruce is survived by sons and daughters-in-law Alan & Alicia, James & Martha, and Daniel, and by daughters and sons-in-law, Deirdre & William Karcher and Laura & Robert Doto. His children, grandchildren and one great-grandchild (with one on the way) are scattered across the continental United States.
A memorial service will be held at St. Christopher’s Community Church in Olympia, WA on December 16, 2017. A celebration of Bruce’s life will also be held in New Jersey at a future date. His ashes will be interred in the memorial garden at St. Mary’s, Sparta where he and Ginnie raised their family.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to St. Christopher’s Community Church or Doctors without Borders.
Condolences may be sent to Virginia Whitehouse at 3730 14th Ave SE, Apt. 230, Olympia WA 98501-0922.
God, our Father, we thank you that you have made each of us in your own image, and given us gifts and talents with which to serve you. We thank you for Bruce, the time we shared with him, the good we saw in him, the love we received from him. Now give us strength and courage, to leave him in your care, confident in your promise of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
