Biography
Bruce graduated from the University of Virginia in 1920.
On May 29, 1926, Bruce married Ailsa Mellon, the daughter of the banker and diplomat Andrew W. Mellon. They divorced on April 20, 1945. Their only daughter, Audrey, and her husband, Stephen Currier, were presumed dead when a plane in which they were flying in the Caribbean disappeared on January 17, 1967, after requesting permission to fly over Culebra, a U. S. Navy installation. No trace of the plane, pilot, or passengers was ever found. Audrey and Stephen Currier left three children: Andrea, Lavinia, and Michael.
Bruce married Evangeline Bell (1914–1995) on April 23, 1945, three days after his divorce. They had two sons and one daughter, Alexandra (called Sasha). She died under mysterious circumstances (possibly murder or suicide) in 1975 at age 29 at the Bruce family home in Virginia.
During World War II, he served with the Office of Strategic Services operation in London and observed the invasion of Normandy landing there the day after the initial invasion.
He served as the United States Ambassador to France from 1949 to 1952, United States Ambassador to West Germany from 1957 to 1959, and United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1961 to 1969. He was an American envoy at the Paris peace talks between the United States and North Vietnam in 1970 and 1971. Bruce also served as the first United States emissary to the People's Republic of China from 1973 to 1974. He was the ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization from late 1974 to 1976. Bruce was a candidate for director of its successor the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 1950. He is said to have written a secret report on the CIA for President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956 that was highly critical of its operation under Allan Dulles's leadership.
Bruce purchased and restored Staunton Hill, his family's former estate in Charlotte County, Virginia. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1976.
Bruce served as the Honorary Chair on the Board of Trustees of the American School in London during his diplomatic career in the United Kingdom. The David K.E. Bruce Award was established in 2007 at the school.
He died on December 5, 1977 of a heart attack at Georgetown University Medical Center.
Read more about this topic: David K. E. Bruce
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