Bruce Allen Irons

Bruce was born January 19, 1941 in Deer Creek, Minnesota, but his family soon headed west, settling in West Seattle, Washington. There, Clyde and Agatha Irons raised Bruce and his four sisters, Connie, Audrey, Vivian and Hope. Bruce’s sisters provided him several nieces and nephews, all of whom he loved being “Uncle Bruce” to.

Bruce attended local schools, including West Seattle High School. He went to work for Dutch Boy paints before joining the United States Air Force. Stationed in Germany, Bruce made the most of his Air Force time, traveling to European cities when possible. Prior to passing, he referred to Rotterdam as one of his favorite places in the world. While serving, he also finished his GED, something he was proud of.

After his military service, Bruce went to work at the “telephone company” (started as Pacific Northwest Bell, eventually becoming Lumen today) and stayed there for 26 years. Bruce regularly stopped in at local restaurants to get a hot breakfast and a cup of coffee before work, which is where he met his wife of 50 years, Sandra. They settled in White Center, and Bruce and Sandra raised 3 children; Rodney Shimanek, Stacey May, and Amber Schneider. The family liked to spend weekends either in their RV or at their Ocean Shores vacation home.

After an early retirement from the phone company, Bruce enjoyed being a ‘house husband’ for a while, before taking on part-time jobs that kept him busy. He took great pride in doing the dishes, specially making sure the water was hot enough to sanitize anything! In his retirement, he and Sandy enjoyed going to Mariners Spring Training and watching baseball games in person or on TV.

Bruce and Sandra moved back to West Seattle briefly in 2005 and later moved to a retirement community in Federal Way, where they lived for over 15 years. They recently moved to Puyallup before Bruce passed away.

Although his sudden turn in health took us all by surprise, his time on hospice gave us time to say our goodbyes and spend time with him.

We will all be better for our time with him and will keep him in our memories.