Bruce Barrymore HIGTON Sr.
Born Sept 30, 1929, died just before sunrise at home in Freestone on June 27, 2014. Age 84. Born in Oakland, CA in 1929, just before the Wall Street Stock Market Crash, Bruce was a precocious only-child who spent his childhood in Richmond, El Cerrito and Oakland. With parents Betty and Harold both born in England, he didn't own long pants until age six. In Nov. 1936, at age seven, Bruce rode with his parents in the sixth car to cross the new Bay Bridge from Oakland to San Francisco.
He graduated from Oakland High in 1947, then UC Berkeley, class of 1951. While at Cal, Bruce was active in Kappa Alpha and the Winged Helmet Society. In 1951 he married UC coed Marjorie Hoak. Their 28-year union produced sons Bruce Jr., Scott, Tracy and Jeffery. He is also survived by seven grandsons, six great-grandchildren, and cousins Kit and Pam Foulds.
As an Army Sergeant First Class (he did everything with class!), he served in Korea during the Korean War Bruce's early jobs included management at the old PSA airlines fledging San Francisco office, and advertising positions with Del Monte Foods before joining his father-in-law's raisin packing business, West Coast Packing, in the Fresno area. Bruce was instrumental in creating and promoting the dancing California Raisins ad campaign. Ten years after he bought the business, West Coast Packing was sold to a publicly traded company where he stayed on as management until 1990. That year he formed California Food Connections, a small, dried-fruit export business operated from West Sonoma County.
Bruce's last 24 years were spent in Freestone with his devoted companion Rob Cooke, his partner in love and laughter (and home hospice caregiver, with gratitude to St. Joseph Health Memorial Hospice). He leaves behind countless friends, relatives, admirers, fellow volunteers, business associates and bon vivants who will long remember him for his style, his smile, his champagne tastes, his amazing youthful appearance (he was neither Rob's brother nor twin!), his blue-hued outfits, silly hats, endless jokes, personal kindness and amazing generosity.
At Bruce's request, no formal memorial is planned. A self-labeled "naturalist," Bruce believed that only the physical laws of nature (as opposed to spiritual) operate in the world - that nothing exists beyond the natural world. Contributions in his name may be made to Food For Thought, Sonoma County AIDS Food Bank (www.fftfoodbank.org), his favorite non-profit where he volunteered for 16 years, serving as Board President for two terms. Now gone, he'll never be forgotten. Ever. WOW, sweetie, WOW!
