Bruce Terry Dunford

     Bruce Terry Dunford was born on 15 September 1941 Sacred Heart Hospital, Medford, Jackson County, Oregon.¹ He was the son of LeVon Perry Dunford and Doris Catherine Clark. Bruce Terry Dunford died 26 March 2021, in Ewa Beach, Honolulu County, Hawaii at age 79 years, 6 months and 11 days.

Bruce Dunford, whose exploits as a longtime Associated Press reporter prompted then-Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle to declare the day he retired “Bruce Dunford Day,” has died, his family said.
Dunford died in his sleep March 26 at a care home in Ewa Beach, his son Terrence said. He was 79.
Dunford reported for the AP for 37 years, including more than two decades covering Hawaii politics. A tongue-in-cheek proclamation Lingle issued upon his 2004 retirement said he would be “forever known as the Capitol Jester” for his puns, jokes and put-downs.
The proclamation said he had an “uncanny psychic ability” to know when Lingle would arrive for work, so he could approach her in the Capitol basement with questions.
Richard Borreca, who covered politics around the same time for what was then the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, recalled gossiping with Dunford over lunch “with an appropriate disrespect for all the political players in town.” Borreca said one of the charming things about Dunford, whose preferred work attire was a pair of jeans and an aloha shirt and who enjoyed riding his Harley-Davidson motorcycle, was that he never took himself too seriously.
“Bruce was a one of a kind — an irreverent, unimpressionable reporter and the absolute definition of a heart of gold,” Borreca said. “There wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do, especially if there was a beer involved.”
Born in Medford, Ore., and raised in Flagstaff, Ariz., Dunford joined the AP in Honolulu in 1967 after learning to be a journalist in the Navy. He met his wife when he was stationed in Hawaii and she was working at an ice cream parlor in Waikiki, Terrence Dunford said.
Bruce Dunford attended the University of Hawaii for a while after leaving the Navy but started working for the AP when his second son was born and a position opened at the news service.
Terrence Dunford recalled that when he was in high school, his father worked the evening shift, which gave him the morning to hit the waves.
“Sometimes when we were at school, at recess or at lunch, we’d see the van heading off to the beach where Dad would go bodysurfing or bodyboarding before going off to work,” he said.
Bruce Dunford loved covering politics, his son said.“I know sometimes he would get in trouble for asking questions. But that’s his job, is to ask the question,” Terrence Dunford said.
Bruce Dunford also is survived by his wife of 56 years, Ann; three other sons, Kenneth, David and Robert; four grandchildren; and a sister, Pat Dunford.²

     He served Flagstaff Men Enlist in Navy
Bruce T. Dunford, son of Mr. and Mrs. LaVon [SIC] Dunford, and Winfred E. Ralston, son of Mr. and Mrs. Winfred Ralston, both of Flagstaff recently enlisted in the Navy and are undergoing training now at the San Diego Naval Training Center.

AZ Daily Sun, 16 May 1962, p 12, col 1. before 16 May 1962. He was a journalist for Associated Press between 1967 and 2004 Honolulu, Hawaii. He served Local Youth in Honolulu
A Flagstaff navy man is now serving as a journalist at the headquarters of the world's largest naval command in Honolulu.

He is Bruce T. Dunford, Journalist Seaman apprentice, son of Mr. and Mrs. LeVon P. Dunford of 404 West Juniper St., Flagstaff. Journalist Dunford reported for duty Jan. 23 to the headquarters of Admiral John H. Sides, Commander-in-Chief Pacific Fleet.

As a journalist, Dunford is assigned to the public information office. He will assist in keeping the public informed as to the mission of the navy in the Pacific. This will include news stories on the more than 400 ships, 3,000 aircraft and quarter of a million Navymen and Marines in the Pacific Fleet.

Before enlisting in the navy, Dunford graduated from Flagstaff High School. He attended Arizona State College majoring in liberal arts. Dunford graduated from journalist class "A" school at Great Lakes, Ill., prior to his present duty.

Arizona Daily Sun, 26 Jan 1963, p2, col 6.