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Obituary for Bruce J. De Bever
Bruce Julien De Bever of Golden, Colorado passed in peace at home, surrounded by his children. His Spirit joined our mother Patricia Ann Klingbeil on their 63rd wedding anniversary. Bruce was the second of three children born to Omer Joseph De Bever and Dorothy Mildred Koelling in Oak Park, Illinois. He served in the Army from 1954-1957 with honorable discharge. He met and married his wife Patricia in Colorado Springs, moving shortly after to Southern California to begin work as director of manufacturing and engineering. From 1975-2000 he was president of 5 companies resulting in increased growth and profits with his “out-of-the-box” thinking. His business savvy was in strategic business planning, engineering, manufacturing, and new product development.
Bruce and Pat raised seven children while he worked full time and attended college at night. He graduated in 1981 with a degree in Business Administration. His love of spirituality and a life-long member of the Catholic faith filled him with love of those less fortunate. He supported various charities, orphanages, and organizations. He attended numerous spiritual seminars and had many books on living a spiritual life. His children recall memories of his involvement with their interests such as Y-Indian Guides, Girl Scouts, Pinewood Derby races, building skateboard ramps, riding motorcycles, building bicycles, and taking family vacations via an old Ford station wagon. He loved taking apart cars and rebuilding them by hand to learn how they worked. He was the ultimate handyman who could fix or build anything.
By 1990’s Bruce and Pat moved to Telluride, Colorado. There they continued an active lifestyle bicycling, snowshoeing, and visiting the outlying towns. Both participated in Ride the Rockies bike tours. Bruce enjoyed working with a local Jeep company driving tourists over Black Bear Pass, Imogene Pass and Dallas Divide. He loved the SW Colorado and Four Corners region for jeep tours and camping. Bruce remained as a consultant to various organizations, was a frequent visitor to St. Patrick’s Catholic Church and known to help with small repairs when needed. In 2013 Bruce and Pat moved to Golden, Colorado to be closer to their grown children. In 2017 Pat passed away. Bruce’s goal was to remain living at home where he dedicated his life to his spiritual studies. He attended mass regularly and made new friends throughout the Golden community. His favorite outing was to be driven up Lookout Mountain, inhale the view and have ice cream. He loved going out for lunch at the Bridgewater Grill and developed quite a fan club. His health care providers, caregivers, Safeway employees and most folks he met all loved Bruce. He was polite, observant, old fashioned charming and respectful of people he engaged with. He made himself available for anyone asking for help or guidance in life. In summary, it was said that “Bruce = keen intellect; impeccable sense of wit, full of grace, and guided by clear ethics. He lived a life that had his ticket to Heaven punched with punches to spare.”
Bruce is preceded in death by his wife Pat and his first-born sister, Marilyn Punahele, survived by younger brother Peter De Bever, his daughter Joanie De Bever (Renny Glover), son Michael De Bever (Dawn Bollman), son Bill De Bever (Carrie), son Gordon De Bever (Renae), daughter Mary Lasken (Bob), son Steven De Bever (Alex), and son Brian De Bever (Kate), and 13 grandchildren.
Inurnment will take place in Lone Tree Cemetery, Telluride Colorado at a future date to be determined safe for such gatherings.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks you: “find yourself in an inspiring place, full of grace, grateful to be part of the human race and love one another, always and forever.”
Memories and messages can be found at www.ellisfamilyservices.com
