Mark Bruce: Call of the Wild
West
Mark
Bruce's childhood reads like a Steinbeck novel. The
grandson of Nebraskans, Mr. Bruce grew up in 1960's San
Luis Obispo -- a sleepy agricultural town near
California's central coast with a Rexall drugstore, a
creek to fish in, and where kids rode their bikes to 4H
meetings.
But unlike Steinbeck's characters, Mr. Bruce moved to
the city, and then East. He studied business, and went to
work in the Bay Area, where he met Dawn Bryfogle, who was
there on a business trip from New York in the late
1980's. "He was very high- energy," she said. He was a
joker and a mimic, he took part in sports, he loved
hiking and flyfishing. Their first date was at a
restaurant on San Francisco Bay. "That was the beginning
of a two-year bicoastal relationship," she said. When a
job offer came from New York, Mr. Bruce, 40, left the
West behind.
He got his break at Bear Stearns before becoming a
trader in mortgage-backed securities at Sandler O'Neill
& Partners in the World Trade Center. He shared the
commute from Summit, N.J., with Ms. Bryfogle (they
married in 1992). He brought a ferretlike intensity to
his work while retaining his small-town demeanor.
But the West still called to the couple. They felt
drawn to mountain air and open space. They looked for a
house in Montana, but had not decided if it would be
their primary home or a vacation home, if they would
really move or if they would stay in New York. Now, Ms.
Bryfogle is ready to make a decision. She said, "The West
is the place that I look to when I think about moving
forward in my own life."
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