Adam Bruce Puchalski

Born November 27, 1945 in Dauphin, Manitoba to Irene Elizabeth (née Little) and Alfred Cornel Puchalski. The family first moved to British Columbia when Alfred and his brother Arnold ‘went west’, acquiring jobs at the pulp mill at Ocean Falls in 1949. They moved to Langley in 1951 when Alfred got a job at what is now Howe Sound Pulp and Paper. The family moved to Reed Road in Gibsons in 1954. From 1956 on, Bruce spent the rest of his childhood on their acreage on Park Road directly across from Brother’s Park, attending Gibsons Elementary School followed by Elphinstone High School, graduating in 1963. He briefly attended the University of British Columbia where he would tell you he specialized in bridge and beer. It was at a party at UBC that he met his future wife, Mary Meiko Yamamoto. After a short stint at UBC, he decided he was better cut out for grand adventures and working abroad. He spent 2 years working in Australia and New Zealand trying his hand at fruit picking, power line construction, weighbridge calibration, just to name a few, before returning home to B.C. with the specific intent of finding Mary again.

Mary and Bruce married in April 1969. They were perfectly matched and both gifted with wanderlust. After they married, they took a year to travel and work as needed in the United Kingdom, Ireland and various countries in continental Europe. After traveling around Europe on a Vespa scooter and sleeping in a leaky tent, they returned to the glorious community of Roberts Creek 1971. The acreage on Lockyer Road would be Bruce’s home for the next 54 years. Beginning as a one room shack with no indoor plumbing and a huge garden, they started their family. Sean was born in July 1972 and Sarah followed in 1974. They proudly raised their own livestock and preserved produce grown from their own land.

Bruce was an active and involved Roberts Creek community member, even featured in the original Higgledy Piggledy Parade as a member of the Lockyer Road Milk Producers Association. In 1978 he became a member of the Roberts Creek Volunteer Fire Department, serving there until 2003. He served as the Chief for about 10 years of his tenure, overseeing growth in membership, growth of the community and physical expansion of the firehall itself.

Bruce worked several different jobs, log booming, at the pulp mill, even driving a cab in Vancouver, but would prefer to be remembered as a home builder. He acquired his carpenter’s ticket from BCIT, commuting by motorcycle to complete his course work and later apprenticing with André Dubé. For several decades he worked building countless homes on the Sunshine Coast. During this time, he also worked for the Shishalh Nation as a trades educator for carpentry.

Bruce was a dedicated and exceptional father. No one would ever argue that his family was his highest priority. He was patient, firm, gruff, kind, interested and proud of everything his children and later, their children did. He was involved in coaching hockey and baseball, interacting with the youth of the Sunshine Coast. He became a member and later chair of the school board, and was actively involved in spearheading the joint use facility that would later

become the gym at Roberts Creek Elementary School. He genuinely loved meeting new people and experiencing new places. His children providing ample opportunity for this as they attended several educational institutions and worked at numerous different places.

Dedicated to not only to his children and community, Bruce also made himself available as a dedicated son to his parents, and a helpful sibling to his sisters and their families over the years. He often volunteered or was volunteered to do any sort of construction project that needed to be done by almost any member of the extended family.

As a younger man, his go to sport was always baseball. He played fastball in the men’s league for years, first base and carried the nickname ‘Turt’ because of his immense speed. Left-handed, he could knock a ball way out in right field at Hackett Park and still not make it home. He lived for tournament play and the annual baseball BBQ, usually hosted at his place in Roberts Creek. In his later years, he and Mary found golf and were dedicated members of the Sunshine Coast Golf and Country Club from 2006 on. There they made many wonderful friends that enjoyed golfing and traveling as much as they did. He continued to golf and be involved with the club even into his last summer earthside.

Mentoring and teaching are continuous threads throughout his life. Be it, apprentice carpenters, new fire department recruits, aspiring athletes, children or grandchildren, innumerable people have been influenced by his stalwart character and unbending integrity.

Bruce was predeceased by his beloved Mary. She was tragically killed in a car accident in Mexico in 2020, as they returned from their o’er wintering site to visit Sarah when she lived in California and then on to their home on the Sunshine Coast. He is survived by his children Sean (Shauna) and Sarah (Adam) and their children Téa and Cole, Andrew and Eliza respectively. He is also survived by his sisters Sonia Puchalski and Susan Scorgie. He found companionship and joy again with Jennifer Fallis in his last few years and has always had heartful love for the Fallis family. He fought a brave battle, for 15 months, against a powerful foe of pancreatic cancer and passed on, just shy of his 80th birthday, on his own terms. He was stoic and fiercely brave until the very end. He was loved and will be dearly missed; a wonderful human. His legacy lives on in his grandchildren.

A celebration of life / service will be held in the new year.

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