James Bruno, a UCLA education professor, died July 11 of cancer.
He was 65.
Bruno, who had been a faculty member since 1968, helped found
the university’s education minor. The minor is housed in the
Graduate School of Education & Information Studies.
Much of Bruno’s scholarship focused on creating effective
administration and leadership in urban school districts.
His colleagues said he often approached problems creatively,
using mathematics to model education policy and technology to
assess the efficacy of instructional programs.
“Professor Bruno’s death is a great loss to us all.
He was dedicated to, and achieved, bringing out the best in every
student, and he was an enormously creative and energetic
scholar,” Aimée Dorr, dean of UCLA’s Graduate
School of Education & Information Studies, said in a
statement.
Bruno’s friends said his passions extended beyond just
education.
“Though his family and his work were his two main
priorities, in that order, he cultivated many personal interests
outside the university as well,” said close friend and former
student Carl Lager, who is an assistant professor in the department
of education at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
“In addition to whipping up great Italian food from
scratch,” continued Lager, “he was a
Stradivarius-inspired violin-maker and violinist, a diver, an East
Coast swing dancer, a furniture maker, a model train hobbyist, a
softball player, a pianist, a palm reader and a huge fan of Frank
Sinatra, Mickey Mantle and the Yankees.”
Bruno is survived by his wife and two daughters.
The family has already held private memorial services, and a
memorial celebration is being planned for August 12 at the UCLA
Faculty Center.
Compiled by Julia Erlandson, Bruin senior staff.