Author: A Tribute by Alan HarrisDecember 13, 1924 - March 27, 2002

In 1950 Bruce Young, when a Bible Class leader at St John's Methodist Church in Nelson, found a Boys' Brigade handbook in a cupboard. The formation of the Life Boy Team at St. John's that followed was the start of a life-long commitment to The Boy's Brigade movement and its Objective "The advancement of Christs Kingdom among Boys....."

Bruce was born in Greymouth. He was educated at Wellington College and then moved to Nelson with his family. Here he started his own photography business and in May 1951 married Lillian Tripney (Billie).

Moving to Wellington in 1953 he was a Lieutenant-in-Charge of 20th Wellington Team Section which grew into one of New Zealands largest Teams. A branch work was started at Cotter St, Moonshine. In 1970 when they moved to Paremata they became involved with the 29th Wellington
Team and Company.

Bruce served the national movement well. He was a strong promoter of The Life Boy age group and as Life Boy director from 1958 to 1967 helped introduce new training techniques at national instructors courses for use at local level, as well as the popular Queen's Birthday weekend courses of the late 1950s - early '60s. He encouraged a closer working relationship between The Life Boys and The Boys' Brigade and this saw the successful integration of the
two groups into the one movement in 1967-68.

His service to the national movement was a total commitment and in 1978 he became President of Boys' Brigade New Zealand and served in this capacity until 1985, serving as immediate past President throughout that year, as well as retaining his international portfolios.

Bruce had a special interest in the developing work in the South Pacific (later the Pacific Regional Fellowship) and together with Alford Dornan travelled widely in promoting and
encouraging the work of the Boys' Brigade in Samoa, the Cook Islands, Niue and Tonga. He represented the PRF on the World Conference Committee and travelled to committee meetings in Denmark and Nigeria and a conference in Singapore in 1990.

Running concurrently with the Singapore conference was a Stedfast International meeting and from that meeting Stedfast New Zealand was formed and Bruce was its secretary until shortly before his death - resigning only due to ill health.

In the midst of all this BB involvement, Bruce continued his carreer as professional photographer in the Wellington area - from 1958 combining it with a picture framing business. His expertise in these areas was well used in his BB work.

Bruce was an encourager to so many of us - his enthusiasm rubbed off on us, as did his love for his saviour - Thank you Bruce.

Our love goes out to Billie who supported Bruce in all that he did, his daughter Beverly and son David and their families. BB New Zealand in all its facets and the wider movement thank you for sharing Bruce with us.

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Boys' Brigade Object - "The advancement of Christ's Kingdom among boys, and the promotion of habits of Obedience, Reverence, Discipline, Self-respect and all that tends toward a true Christian Manliness."