Obituary of Richard Bruce Paschal

Richard Bruce Paschal left this life at age 93 in the early morning of May 2nd, surrounded by family members. In the two weeks prior to his peaceful passing, all of his children and grandchildren came to see him. Bruce is survived by his wife Margaret, his daughter Susan, and his sons Bruce, John, and Brad, as well as his grandchildren Christine, Ashleigh, Jack, Lauren, Allison, Katie, Lizzie, Maddie, Audrey, and step-grandson Nick. Additionally, he is survived by his great grandchildren Skylar, Elise, Keira, Rhys, Avery, and Gunnar. Bruce led a remarkable life and one on his own terms. Bruce was born in Williamson, West Virginia but grew up in Batavia, Ohio. As a child, he spent his summers with family in Virginia and North Carolina. He served in the Army during WW II. Following the war, he graduated from Ohio State University with a business degree. It was at Ohio State where Bruce met his wife Margaret Rees. She was the Ohio State May queen, and he was the master of ceremonies for May Week. They met when he presented her the bouquet of flowers in the ceremony. After graduation, they married, and Bruce began his career in sales and marketing. Early in his career, Bruce became the National Sales Manager for Bausch and Lomb in Rochester, NY, where he promoted the famous Ray-Ban sunglasses in the early 1950s. The next move was to the Standard Fruit and Steamship Company in New Orleans, where he personally built the sales team that took the Cabana banana (later the Dole banana) to the number one position in the U.S. market. Bruce had a long and distinguished career. In 1972, Bruce and his family moved to the San Francisco Bay Area when Bruce became the Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Castle & Cooke, Inc., which owned the Dole Food Company. Bruce enjoyed the challenges of expanding the markets for Dole products. In 1979, Margaret and Bruce moved to Japan for one year while he set up a successful sales and marketing program to distribute Dole products in Japan. This effort was quite an accomplishment, given the historic Japanese traditions to distribute products. After leaving Castle & Cooke in 1983, Bruce retired for about six months, but he quickly became restless. Not one to be idle for very long, he became a consultant for Ocean Spray and the Jamaican Government. Bruce returned to full-time work in 1987 when he took a position with Sun World in the Palm Desert area. Always excited about new challenges and possibilities, Bruce then became an executive with A. Duda & Sons located in Florida. Although they split their time between Florida and the desert, Bruce and Margie always considered the desert their primary home. Of all the companies Bruce was associated with, he particularly loved working with his friends at Dole, and later with the Duda Family and all the people who are part of their company. One of Bruce’s greatest strengths was his ability to motivate people to expand their abilities, push past limits, and succeed in their endeavors. This ability was the common dominator whether he was the president of the Ohio Union at Ohio State, the president of his fraternity Delta Tau Delta, or any of his executive company positions. Bruce was always on the move. He was quoted years ago in an industry publication called The Packer as saying: “I’m going to wear out, not rust out” True to form, he did just as he said he would! For the last 10 years, Bruce was a volunteer mentor at Score where he counseled small business entrepreneurs who wanted to grow their businesses. He continued to do this work with remarkable energy until last December, and by then he was 93 years old. There will be a small family funeral in Roanoke, Virginia, and internment will be at Evergreen Cemetery. His family and friends will also have a remembrance memorial for him later this year. He is already greatly missed, especially his strong presence and generous spirit.