Bruce was a successful entrepreneur and pioneering expert in laser optics

From the Thomas & Walter Quinn Funeral Home website

Bruce Sunderland, beloved husband, father, grandfather, brother, friend, and entrepreneur, passed away unexpectedly on Sunday, June 9, 2024, at home in East Greenwich. He quietly battled cancer for six months and died from treatment complications.

Bruce was a successful entrepreneur and pioneering expert in laser optics. In his nearly 50-year career, he founded three companies that grew into market leaders globally. He had excellent business intuition and was well-versed in the technical details of lasers and their applications in advanced manufacturing, medicine, space, and defense. In later years, Bruce leveraged his expertise to advise the U.S. government on export sanctions on military laser applications.

Bruce was born on September 15, 1954, and raised in Providence, with Roger Williams Park as his backyard. At 11 years old, Bruce got a part-time job at Conneally’s Hardware. His curiosity informed him about every tool, nut, and bolt sold in this store. He graduated from Pilgrim High School in Warwick. He then headed to his second home, Vermont, to study economics and environmental science at Windham College. While a student, Bruce lived in a treehouse that he built with an oriental carpet, chandelier, and a fancy wooden ladder to ascend the tree. Upon graduating in 1978, Bruce bought 18 acres on the top of Putney Mountain and built, with the help of his brother, Gary, a modern home perched atop a large valley with the best sunsets in Vermont.

On his 33rd birthday, on a blind date set up by friends, he met Mimi, a Japanese exchange student in Vermont. They fell in love that night, recognized their future together, and married very shortly thereafter, 36 years ago. Mimi said that she fell in love with Bruce because he was the only guy in Vermont who wore a sports jacket and not a plaid flannel shirt.

Together, they enjoyed the country life, raising sheep to graze the hilly meadows, riding horses, building stone walls, gardening, cooking, entertaining, and stomping in snowshoes. Nevertheless, Bruce came home to Rhode Island and enjoyed suburban life as a loving father in East Greenwich, mowing the lawn and playing catch with his sons and their furry black labs, Carmen and Comet. Bruce’s gourmet cooking at home parties marveled friends beyond any comparison.

Jumping on planes for trips to Lisbon, London, and beyond also nurtured Bruce and Mimi’s gastronomic repertoire. Bruce’s adventurous mind brought him to many exotic places in the world. He would sip Ribera in tapas bars in Madrid (though he would pour Californian pinot noirs over old world wine, any day), crack baguettes in bistros in the Marais, and slurp ramen in Japanese train stations. He was an expert conversationalist with locals all over, chatting up truckers in rural Algeria, chefs at roadside pork stalls in Puerto Rico, and fishermen on the banks of the Panama Canal. He backpacked across South America during college and later lived for a year on the beach in Puerto Escondido, Mexico, chasing sailfish and dorado, before selling his clothes and suitcase for money to travel home.

Bruce always put his family first. He is survived by his wife and soulmate, Mikiko (Mimi) Morimura, two sons, Grant and Bradford, and grandson, Kalani.

Left to grieve for him are his older sister Dr. Barbara Sunderland Manousso (John Manousso) of Houston, Texas, and Newport, R.I., brother Gary Sunderland of North Kingston, and baby sister Diana Sunderland Prise (Dr. Michael Prise) of Kirkland, Wash., in addition to numerous fond family members, friends, and business associates in the states and abroad.

He will be dearly missed by all. A visitation will be held Friday, June 14, from 3 to 5 p.m. with words of remembrance at 5 p.m. at the family residence in East Greenwich. Arrangements by Thomas & Walter Quinn Funeral Home of Warwick.

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Posted 6/12/24