He was a war hero. After his ship, the aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill, was hit by two kamikazes off Okinawa, and everybody had to jump into the Pacific to avoid the flames, Meyers the surfer gave his life jacket to a sailor who didn’t have one, then he towed an injured pilot through flaming oil slicks for two hours.
He did something few men have ever done, he invented a type of vehicle. The Dune buggy was a concept before him, but there was no set look or design, they were doodle bugs of any shade tree mechanics design... then Bruce Meyers set the fundamental look and style in pop culture, and it was copied and changed a bit here and there by others that looked to cash in on the newest thing, but a Meyers Manx is a true car of beautiful proportions and looks.
To say Bruce Meyers was a renaissance man would be to limit him. Yes, he was trained in fine arts at Chouinard Art Institute, with a specialty in life drawing, but unlike the traditional renaissance man, Bruce surfed, raced in the Baja 1000, and sailed to Tahiti on a trading schooner.
https://www.autoweek.com/news/people/a35567136/bruce-meyers-obit/
https://racer.com/2021/02/21/insight-finding-the-finish-line-with-bruce-meyers/
The youngest of five children, Bruce Franklin Meyers was born March 12, 1926, on his family’s dining room table in Los Angeles. His father, a businessman and riding mechanic, was friends with Henry Ford, who hired him to set up Ford dealerships across the country. His mother was a song plugger, a singer hired to promote new music for department stores or music publishers.
Meyers spent much of his childhood on beaches in and around Los Angeles, becoming a lifeguard after one of his brothers drowned. He dropped out of high school to join the Merchant Marine and later enlisted in the Navy
Well said,Jesse.
ReplyDeleteHe was indeed an incredible man Jesse. I didn't know he was a sailor on the Bunker Hill, and that he saved lives from a burning hell. Rest in Peace Bruce Meyer, You are a hero and inspiration to us all.
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