Bruce Staudt, 65, of San Francisco, was born in Wilmington, Delaware to Warren and Carol Staudt. Bruce’s family moved to Belgium when he was eight. He attended high school at the International School of Brussels where he played competitive team handball and acted in the role of Buffalo Bill in “Annie Get your Gun.” After graduating in 1978, Bruce moved to Boston to attend Tufts University and graduated with a BA degree in International Relations. He moved to San Francisco in 1982 where he worked as a house painter and a commercial fisherman, catching crab in Half Moon Bay and black cod and halibut in the Bering Sea off Homer, Alaska. 

During the off-season, Bruce travelled all over the world, having many hair-raising escapades which he recounted with great gusto for his friends back home. One year, while travelling in Oaxaca, Mexico, he chanced upon a rehabilitation center called Piña Palmera that served orphaned children with physical disabilities. Bruce signed up as a volunteer, helping care for the children and using his carpentry skills to build chicken coops, bathrooms, and swing sets. He fell in love with the children and lived at Piña Palmera for almost a year. Back in San Francisco, he helped raise money for the center, set up a charitable sister program with his elementary school in Belgium, and started collecting used wheelchairs from local charities to send by bus down to Mexico. 

Piña Palmera is where he found his calling. Bruce chose the path of becoming an occupational therapist and enrolled in prerequisite classes at San Francisco State University, where he also taught anatomy and human cadaver dissection. He then attended San Jose State University and graduated with an MS degree in occupational therapy in 1996. After graduation, he worked at St. Mary’s Medical Center, and in 1999, he landed his dream job at San Francisco General Hospital where he worked for 23 years before retiring in 2022. 

Bruce will be remembered for his kindness, adventurous spirit, dedication to his patients, and his wonderful sense of humor. Bruce is predeceased by his parents, survived by wife Nila, son Nico, brother Richard (Antje), sister Sandra (Michael), aunt Jane, and beloved nieces, nephews, and grandnephew.

In lieu of sending flowers, please consider making a charitable donation in Bruce’s memory to Piña Palmera https://www.pinapalmera.org/colaborate/donate.