Bruce was born in Skokie, Illinois, a northern suburb of Chicago. He had a delightful childhood, which is continuing to this day. He went to college at Carleton College in Northfield Minnesota and majored in Physics and Mathematics. There he went out for the volleyball team and appeared in several plays. After graduation in 1976 he went to Northwestern University in Evanston Illinois and played on the Northwestern Volleyball team. Bruce's Ph.D. thesis was entitled "Constrained Controllability".

After being awarded a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics in 1980, he went to work for General Dynamics in San Diego. There, he worked on simulations of cruise missiles and space flights, and learned that perfect weather and industry was not for him. He returned to the midwest and taught mathematics at the University of Wisconsin at River Falls for a year (also coached volleyball), and came to the mathematics department at the University of Michgan Dearborn in 1982.

In 1990 Bruce earned a Masters Degree in Computer Science at Ann Arbor and Bruce married the former Linda Johnston. In 1993, Linda gave birth to their son Andrew James. Before Andrew, Bruce enjoyed biking (biked up to Mackinaw Island and Nova Scotia), as well as hiking, reading science fiction and reading about Frank Lloyd Wright. Now Bruce enjoys, Dinosaurs, Berenstain Bears and Dr. Seuss. After the birth of Joshua in 1996 Bruce does less but enjoys it more.