Canadian Medical Association Journal 1996; 155: 503
Bruce's career focused on four E's: endocrinology, education, editing and ethics. He might add a few others. For example, he would probably consider that his first career was in entertainment, when at the age of 5 he performed tap-dance routines professionally. Later, his medical studies led him to do a PhD in endocrinology, during which he identified the effects of a little-known hormone, relaxin.
Bruce has always been a superlative teacher. He undertook innumerable pedagogical initiatives during his 20 years at the University of Western Ontario, ranging from curriculum development, at his home university, in Saudi Arabia and in Lagos, to writing several books. He loved his work -- no problem was too big to tackle and no detail too small to attend to; he dealt with all of them with the same level of zest and enthusiasm.
This love of work continued in his role as editor-in-chief of this journal. His editorial skills and insights gained him the respect of medical editors around the world. He was as staunch a supporter of the King's English as he was of editorial freedom, and he argued for both passionately. His commitment to editorial ethics and his unwillingness to be compromised earned him the label of "difficult" at times, but to my mind this was his badge of honour.
What I will miss most, however, is his insatiable intellectual curiosity that would inevitably spark inquiry and debate. I cannot imagine that this curiosity will cease when he leaves the CMA. We wish him well in his future endeavours, including his new position as secretary of the World Association of Medical Editors.