Bruce Kaiper

Bruce Kaiper passed away on Friday, Sept. 7, 2018. Bruce spent his life fighting for human rights. He fought for equal voting rights in the south in the 1960s. He organized for equal housing rights in Chicago. He started the “Radical Elders Oral History Project” in the Bay Area of California to record the lives of older generations who had fought for global, political, and social equality. As an artist, he created metal sculptures including a sculpture in honor of People’s Park in Berkeley, CA. His amazing silkscreen posters celebrated diverse groups of working people from the Vietnamese in their liberation struggle to the Black Panthers and their fight for civil rights. He helped organize “The Other America” in Berlin, Germany- an art exhibit about the lives and struggles of working Americans. Bruce taught at Pojoaque High School and took a team of robotics students to Lucknow, India, where they twice won first place in the International Robotic Games.  He was chosen for “Ten Who Made a Difference in New Mexico” for his work with high school students. Bruce was a singer who had the lead role in “Amal and the Night Visitors” at Yale, he would harmonize with his family to American Folk Songs and Motown music, and he never stopped singing. He was a storyteller, and would tell incredible stories of past people, of folktales, and of the beautiful narratives of his own life. Bruce loved nature, especially the mountains of Yosemite and Northern New Mexico. He brought his family (his wife Ellen and daughter Anna) from Oakland, CA, to Espanola, NM, in 1985, and always had great love and respect for the cultures of the valley. He loved people, and made everyone who he met him feel loved in return. Finally, he was an incredible partner and an amazing father, and taught his family how to continuously be curious about life, history, and social justice. We will miss him forever, but the joy and strength he brought to the world everyday will continue to inspire us for the rest of our lives. We love you dad. The family of Bruce Kaiper has entrusted their loved one to DeVargas Funeral Home & Crematory of the Española Valley.