Bruce Willard Turner died October 1, 2009 in Leesburg, Virginia after a long illness. He was born 1920 in Racine, Wisconsin to George Preston and Vivian Wilmore Turner. The family moved to New Jersey in 1933, where Bruce graduated from Madison High School and was also captain of the varsity football team. He loved sports, and later became a skilled competitor in golf, tennis and platform tennis.
On December 9, 1941 he enlisted in the Army Air Forces and was stationed in England flying P51 Mustang fighter planes until he was shot down in June 1944. Until the end of the war, he was interred in Stalag Luft III prison camp, which was portrayed in the movie "The Great Escape". He was awarded the Air Medal 7 Oak Leaf Clusters and received a citation from the French Government for participating in the D-Day liberation of France.
He returned to Madison, New Jersey, where he married Patricia Fenton, daughter of George and Lillian Fenton, longtime residents of Madison.
He received a Bachelors Degree from Babson College in 1949, after which they moved to Richmond, Virginia where he was a sales manager for Corning Glass. They moved to the Baltimore area where he later became a vice president for Standard Cap and Molding. They returned to the Madison/Chatham area in 1969 where they resided for the next 20 years, and where he became a sales manager with Unistrut Steel. He was a member of the Chatham Fish and Game Club.
He retired to Yarmouth, Massachusetts in 1990 where he and Patricia belonged to Chatham Platform Tennis Club, and the South Yarmouth Tennis Club, of which he was President for two years. He played happily at both sports for 15 more years.
He is survived by his wife Patricia of Ashburn, Virginia, his son James and wife Ruth Hanson Turner of Bedford, New Hampshire, his daughter Sarah and husband Gary Black of Oakton, Virginia. His grandchildren are Christina and husband Mauricio Herbas of Washington, DC and James Jr. and wife Kelsey Turner of Waltham, Massachusetts.
Burial will be at Arlington National Cemetery on December 9 at 1 p.m.
In lieu of flowers, gifts may be made to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, Church Street Station, PO Box 780, New York, NY 10008-0780, Att: Tribute Gifts, or at www.michaeljfox.org