Bruce Daniels

Bruce S. Daniels of Indio, California, passed away on July 17, 2026, after a five-year battle with pancreatic cancer. In part, Bruce wished his obituary to serve as a tribute to the extraordinary doctors and staff at the City of Hope Medical Center, Loma Linda University, Eisenhower Hospital, and Desert Hematology and Oncology. Their care gave him extra years of quality living during his fight with the disease.

He is survived by his wife of nearly 53 years, Gail C. Daniels; their two sons, Justin S. Daniels and Michael J. Daniels; and two grandsons. Family always came first for Bruce and Gail. As a deeply loving and devoted couple, they made family activities a priority every year—golf, boating on Lake Mead, and snow skiing throughout North America—as their family grew.

Bruce was born in Albany, New York, on November 5, 1945, the son of Spencer Millard Daniels of Adams, Massachusetts, and Jeanette Wilbur Purdy of Albany. He spent his early years in Massachusetts until the age of 13, when the family moved to Paoli, Pennsylvania, in 1959. Bruce attended Valley Forge Military Academy in Wayne, Pennsylvania, graduating in 1963 as a First Lieutenant in the E Battery division. He went on to Marietta College in Marietta, Ohio, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics in 1967.

Following college, Bruce enlisted in the Navy and attended Officers Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1968. He was commissioned an Ensign that June. His first assignment took him on a WestPac deployment as Damage Control Officer aboard the USS Markab (AR-23). In 1970 he was promoted to Engineering Officer and then to Executive Officer of the ocean minesweeper USS Lucid (MSO-458) while deployed to Vietnam. After the ship returned and was decommissioned in December 1970, the Lucid began its long journey toward restoration as a museum ship in Stockton, California—a project Bruce and Gail have generously supported ever since. In 2004 the couple made Indio, California, their permanent home.

Bruce enjoyed a fulfilling 40-year career in sales and marketing within the medical-devices industry. He joined Kentec Medical in Irvine, California, in 1975 and was promoted to lead the company’s sales team three years later. In 1994 he became President of Pall Biomedical Company in Glen Cove, New York. Returning to California in 2002, he managed global sales and marketing for PTI Technology, a division of ESCO Technologies based in St. Louis, Missouri. In 2004 ESCO relocated him to Filtertek in Hebron, Illinois. Five years later, in 2009, Bruce co-founded VR Medical, a device-manufacturing company based in China. He retired in 2018.

Bruce and Gail shared many close friendships with family and friends from coast to coast. A true “people person,” Bruce made friends easily. Those who knew him often said he regarded every new acquaintance simply as a friend he hadn’t met yet.

A celebration of life will be planned and announced shortly.