Point Reyes Light - December 11, 2003
Former Inverness teacher Anna Bruckman dies at 93
By Larken Bradley
Anna Bruckman, a retired Inverness School teacher and consummate church lady at St. Columba’s Episcopal Church, also known for her wit and her sensible, black, lace-up shoes, died at home Wednesday, Dec. 3, of natural causes. She was 93.
Dedicated to congregation
Dedicated to her duties as directress of the congregation’s altar guild, she also founded the parish’s retreat center, and served for years as head of its guild. Her religious devotion led her on pilgrimages far and wide. Before her 90th birthday, her final trip was an extended stay in Australia, fulfilling a lifelong goal of visiting every continent.
"She was my favorite saint and my favorite human too," said Light circulation manager Missy Patterson, a close friend for nearly 40 years.
Anna Gassaway was born in Belvedere on Sept. 25, 1910, in her maternal grandfather’s home on Golden Gate Avenue, high above the bay, now an historical landmark. Her delivery was attended by her aunt, Dr. Florence Scott, one of only a handful of women to graduate with the class of 1896 at the University of California-San Francisco’s medical school.
Teaching career
Her father, an oil-company engineer, later moved the family to Los Angeles where she graduated from Hollywood High School and UCLA, with a degree in English.
She began her teaching career in Connecticut and met her future husband, Robert Bruckman, on a sailing trip there. The couple made their way to California where she taught English at the Bonita School for Boys, located in Bonita, San Diego County, whose headmaster was her brother, Stephen Gassaway.
A strict and fair teacher
Eventually the Bruckmans moved to San Francisco and in the mid-60s to Inverness, where she taught young students at Inverness School.
This week Olema resident Dennis Rodoni recalled his teacher as being "very caring and motherly but also very firm."
Reflected Rodoni, "you always behaved in her classroom."
Her husband, a master bookbinder, wood craftsman, and collector of rare books, "was so dramatic and full of imaginative mischief," observed friend and historian Nancy Olmstead.
Occasionally piqued by his wife’s time-consuming church activities, Mr. Bruckman, who was Jewish, sarcastically referred to the church as "The Angel Factory," yet he crafted wood masterpieces, including the stations of the cross for its outdoor worship area.
Nancy Olmstead told The Light a story of the day when Mr. Bruckman, in desperation to relieve an itch that rendered him sleepless and unable to eat, went to the church and stood at the altar, begging for 24 hours of relief. Legend has it that he was granted precisely 24 hours of respite.
Whether or not he converted to the Episcopal faith remains a subject of disagreement among Mrs. Bruckman’s West Marin friends.
Always wore black
During her marriage she always wore black, and fashioned her hair into a braid wound atop the crown of her head. "Robert thought she looked like a Russian princess," said neighbor Elaine Straub.
In the early 80s, the day Mr. Bruckman died, his new widow had her hair bobbed and curled. She drove over the hill and bought a wardrobe of brightly colored, stylish suits. The very same day she snapped up a new RV to boot, Missy Patterson marveled.
Mrs. Bruckman’s world travels took her on the trail of Bushmen paintings in Zimbabwe; following the footsteps of St. Francis of Assisi in Italy; to the Holy Land; and in the 1970s to China.
Known for being generous, if sometimes to a fault, she had great compassion for those in need. Before her death a small flower garden was planted at St. Columba’s in her honor.
She was an associate of the Sisters of the Holy Nativity in Santa Barbara.
Mrs. Bruckman is survived by her brother and sister-in-law, Stephen and Molly Gassaway of Bonita, San Diego County; and seven nieces and nephews.
Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 27, at St. Columba’s Episcopal Church, in Inverness.
Friends have suggested that any memorial contributions may be made to St. Columba’s Memorial Fund; or St. Mary’s Altar Guild, PO Box 430, Inverness 94937.