Bruce D. Johnson

As a 100% service-related disabled Vietnam War veteran, Bruce Johnson took good advantage of the G.I. Bill to attend college, earn an associate’s degree in Horticulture, then spent the first ten years of his working career as a purchasing agent for a major furniture manufacturer. At the peak of his inventory management vocation, he once saved his employer one and one-half cents each on 8-gauge, 24-inch sinuous wire springs while simultaneously increasing inventory turns from 2.8 to 3.2 per year.

As gratifying as this may sound, Bruce wasn’t one to become complacent. Seeking a change of pace from the corporate grind, and looking to get closer to nature, he quit his job, bought a farm, and went into the dairy business. This was a natural career move for him, as he had spent a week one summer on a dairy farm in north central Pennsylvania when he was sixteen.

Bruce milked 35 cows each day including one named Brenda and another named Annabel. Dehorning some unaccommodating heifers one afternoon precipitated a divorce from his lovely wife/assistant who never felt completely comfortable with farm life. As chance would have it, at about this same time, word processing software and personal computers became commonplace, so, after selling the farm, Bruce wrote a funny book.

“I was able to do this,” he explained, “because I have spell-check and a good sense of humor.”

Over the next 15 years Bruce performed regularly at the Lyric Opera of Chicago as a Union Actor and proud member of the American Guild of Musical Artists. For his “day job” (and most actors need a day job) he owned and managed a horticulture-related business…and wrote another book.

Bruce, still writing, now resides on the north shore of Geneva Lake in Wisconsin (with his current wife Gail) where his prized vegetable garden is well liked and greatly appreciated by the local deer population. He also owns a boat. This seemed, at first, to be a logical acquisition for someone living on a lake. As it turns out however, being in Wisconsin, he would have gotten far more recreational value, and a longer useful season, at a fraction of the cost, had he instead purchased a pair of ice skates.