Don Bruce, Newsday copy editor, dies

Newspaper copy editors are the unsung heroes of journalism, toiling behind the scenes but regularly saving reporters' reputations by focusing on the minutiae of stories — catching errors, correcting grammar and polishing an article before the public sees it.

Don Bruce was a maestro of that minutiae as he worked at Newsday and other publications in a 45-year career in which he copy edited many major stories and investigative pieces.

"Don was a go-to copy editor for complicated stories or projects. He had a way of making all of them better — he'd catch something that didn't quite make sense [and] write a headline that told it just right," said Newsday Associate Managing Editor Doug Dutton. "If Don said the story was OK, I knew it was."

Bruce, 68, of Northport, died Friday of cancer at Parker Jewish Institute for Health Care and Rehabilitation in New Hyde Park, friends said.

With his elite editor skills, dry sense of humor and signature ball cap saying "Thinking Cap," Bruce's personality could be found in a headline he wrote that won a Press Club of Long Island award in 2017: 

"Cops Round Up Goat That Went on the Lam."

Roots in the Midwest

Born and raised in Connersville, Indiana, Bruce graduated from the local high school in 1973, where he played the titular character in the play "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty." He studied journalism and broadcasting at Western Kentucky University, where he met his future wife, Fina, while working on the college paper.

"I admired him from afar. He was very quiet and would only speak when he had something important to say," recalled Fina Badolato, who was married to Bruce from 1978 to 2012, and who remained close with him afterward. The couple bonded easily, she said, sharing long nights working at the school paper. "I found that under that facade that seemed strict and aloof, there's a person with a very warm and loving heart."

The weekend after the couple graduated in 1978, they married, she said. They worked together at a few weekly papers in Kentucky before Bruce was hired by the St. Petersburg Times, where he was a business desk editor from 1983 to 1987, Badolato said. From there he embarked on his first of two stints with Newsday, living in Commack and serving as a business editor from 1988 to 1995, she said.

"He just blossomed as an editor. … His skill and knowledge were amazing," said Badolato, 67, of Middletown.

From Long Island, the couple took a sharp turn away from journalism and worked several years for the Best Friends Animal Society in Utah. Don did some writing there and created the group's webpage and Fina edited its magazine.

"This was our dream," Fina said, noting both were animal lovers. "We did everything there — we did adoptions, pooper-scooped the mess."

A return to journalism

Bruce returned to journalism as the night desk copy chief at the Times Herald-Record in Middletown from 1998 to 2009, Badolato said. A young copy editor there, Seth Mates, recalled meeting Bruce.

"I was petrified. He was so authoritative, so intimidating, so sharp, so smart," said Mates, 44, of Bellmore. "I wanted him to respect me so much."

Jennifer Spugnardi worked beside Bruce on the copy desk at the Middletown paper, recalling he had a battery-operated Kung Fu hamster at his desk. At the oddest times — such as after a rush of effort to make deadline — he would turn it on and it would sing the song "Kung Fu Fighting" in a squeaky little voice, she said.

Bruce, Mates and Spugnardi remained close for the next 20 years. Mates and Spugnardi went on to wed in 2006, and Mates became art director at Newsday. Mates had recommended Bruce for his second stint at Newsday. Dutton hired him in 2015, and Bruce worked there until his illness worsened some months ago, they said. Mates now is a vice president at Baseball America, a sports enterprise that covers baseball.

Andy Levenberg, who oversees Newsday's copy desk, said of Bruce, "I would always give him the lead stories. I knew he would do great, ask pertinent questions, catch any mistakes and write an excellent headline."

Beyond journalism, Bruce was a lover of trains since he was a kid and had crisscrossed the country riding them. He was hoping to get in one more train trip, along with Mates and Spugnardi, when his health recently took a sharp decline, they said.

Mates visited him Thursday. 

"He was at peace," Mates said. "I held his hand for more than an hour. Before I left I told him we all loved him. I kissed him on the forehead and said, 'Goodbye.' "

Bruce had no children, and his parents and two brothers, David and Robert, had predeceased him, friends said. Cremation will be private, though friends are planning a celebration of life get-together for him on Long Island.

By Craig Schneider

craig.schneider@newsday.comScraigo

Craig Schneider is a Long Island native and Stony Brook University alumnus. He joined Newsday as a general assignment reporter in January 2018 after 20 years at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.