Bruce Pulsifer Smith, a former resident of Whitman and retired executive editor of The Enterprise of Brockton, died at his home in Chatham on Monday, July 19, 2021, after a long illness. His wife and children were by his side to give their husband and father their love in his journey to the “happy hunting grounds,” as he always said when speaking of his death.
Bruce was born on May 9, 1935, the son of Melvin W. Smith and Eleanor Pulsifer Smith, both residents of Whitman. He lived 68 of his 86 years with his childhood sweetheart, Lorraine. They met at Whitman High School and were married on June 18, 1953.
Bruce became an Eagle Scout at the early age of 14. He was an avid outdoorsman throughout his life, with interests in hunting, fishing, boating, snowmobiling, snowshoeing, camping and hiking. Bruce and Lorraine traveled North America from Alaska to Quebec, with Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire their favorite hunting and winter sports locations.
Bruce’s four-decade newspaper career began when he joined the staff of the Brockton Enterprise as a reporter in 1954. He was executive editor during the newspaper’s glory days, when it covered a region from Hanover to Wareham and from Plymouth to Easton. Advertising was so robust and the demand for local news so great that The Sunday Enterprise was launched in the early 1980s. The four-story Enterprise Building at 60 Main Street in Brockton was a landmark that housed news, advertising and business departments, a press, a garage for the delivery fleet, and radio stations WBET and WCAV.
Bruce presided over a newsroom full of colorful characters in the days before human resource departments and political correctness, but the occasional foibles of his staff only amused him, perhaps because his rich life outside of work so balanced him. The worlds did overlap, though. Thanks to Bruce, reporters tasted venison stew for the first time and took home freshly caught bluefish with a recipe that included vermouth. Because his writers and editors seemed unable to remember what differentiated a handgun from a shotgun, at their request he created a guide that became known as “Bruce’s Gun Primer.” For many years he wrote a bi-weekly column called “Sportsmen’s Corner” documenting his own wilderness and aquatic adventures as well as those of other local sportsmen.
His children appreciated that his work schedule at The Enterprise, an afternoon newspaper, brought him to work early in the morning but allowed him to be there when they returned home from school in the afternoon. Most special of all were summers when he commuted from Brockton to Chatham. Bruce and Lorraine built the Chatham house in 1965. Bruce did the inside finish work, which included deer, elk and fish mounts. It was a memorable place for the friends and children who visited there.
Bruce’s major interests became activities that were rewarding for the entire family. He took them camping, mountain climbing, hunting, fishing, motor boating and canoeing. They spent family holidays exploring Civil War battlefields, the Blue Ridge Mountains, the Luray Caverns in Virginia and the Allagash Wilderness Waterways of Maine. Time on the Cape meant four-wheeling on Nauset Beach and the dunes of Provincetown. His family-oriented lifestyle was influential to all five of his children, who treasure the memories of those halcyon days.
Bruce’s retirement in 1997 coincided with the newspaper’s sale by the Fuller family after 116 years of family ownership.
He was a member of the Cape Cod Fish and Game Sport Club in Harwich beginning with his retirement. He stepped down as secretary and trustee of the Colebrook Cemetery in 2019 after serving on the board since 1972.
Bruce leaves his beautiful wife, Lorraine, and their five children, Steven B. Smith and his wife, Diane, of Ashland, Ore.; Lynne (Smith) Casoli and her husband, David, of Whitman; Gregory Smith of Brockton; Andrew Smith and his companion, Anne Marie Comeau, of Plymouth, Vt.; and Matthew Smith and his companion, Kathryn O’Brien, of San Gabriel, Calif. He was the grandfather of nine, including Ian Smith of Montgomery, Ill.; Elizabeth (Smith) Spina of Oswego, Ill.; Joel Marcioni (deceased); Leanne (Marcioni) Klatt of Whitman; Shera (Smith) Rosario of Whitman; Krysta Smith of Taunton; Vanessa Smith of Middleboro; Grace Smith of Brockton; and Connor Rhys O’Brien Smith of San Gabriel, Calif. He also is survived by five great-grandchildren, with another on the way.
Services will be private, under the direction of the Blanchard Funeral Chapel.