U.S. Steel metallurgist and WWII vet
Brilliant and brave, Bruce Shields believed in giving back to his community.
The World War II veteran, Boy Scout leader and graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology brought his degree in metallurgy back to his job at U.S. Steel in his hometown of Pittsburgh.
“He was certainly a member of the greatest generation,” said his son Duncan Shields, of Denver.
Mr. Shields, 97, died Jan. 16 of complications from a stroke at the Naples, Fla., retirement home that he moved to several years ago.
Born in Wilkinsburg as the son of a steel worker, Mr. Shields was interested in the steel-making process even as a boy, his sons said.
“He grew up in Pittsburgh around the steel industry — he had steel in his blood,” said his son Gordon Shields, of Columbus, Ohio.
After high school, he pursued an engineering degree at Carnegie Institute of Technology, where he joined the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps.
Just two years into his education, Mr. Shields left school to join the Army and the World War II effort in 1943. He served as a lieutenant and an aviation combat engineer in the Philippines before becoming a reservist.
After his active duty ended in 1945, Mr. Shields returned to Carnegie Tech, from where he graduated in 1947. He moved to Boston and enrolled at MIT, earning a master’s degree in 1952.
It was also where he met Nancy Garwood Adams, who would become the love of his life.
“She was a secretary at MIT,” Gordon Shields said. “She was going out with a friend of my dad’s but all of the sudden, she found that she had eyes for my dad.”
After just a two-month courtship, the couple were married in June of 1951. Mrs. Shields died in 2016.
The couple made their home in Churchill until the early 1960s, when Mr. Shields was appointed chief metallurgist at a U.S. Steel plant in Chicago.
He had worked for the local steel giant since he was a student at Carnegie Tech, starting as a metallurgical observer at the Homestead Works in 1942.
By 1965, Mr. Shields was assisting in steel-making operations for U.S. Steel in Spain and Italy. The experience sparked what would become a lifelong passion for travel, his sons said.
“He and my mom traveled to 74 different countries,” Gordon Shields said. “That travel bug started when he was working for U.S. Steel in the international department. We lived in Spain for several months, then Naples, Italy, the next year. We were all over Europe.”
“He traveled to Japan and Russia for work and pleasure,” Duncan Shields said. “We went to Switzerland once and got to go to the Matterhorn. We went up and down the Amalfi Coast and to the Isle of Capri. And, I think we visited every cathedral that existed in Europe.”
The most memorable trip was probably a safari in Africa, when Mr. and Mrs. Shields had the chance to enjoy a sunrise hot air balloon excursion over Zimbabwe, his sons said.
When Mr. Shields became a corporate manager in 1968, the young family moved to Mt. Lebanon. Mr. Shields was eventually named director of metallurgical engineering at U.S. Steel in 1977.
He retired in 1983 but worked for another 23 years as an independent consultant for the steel industry.
Mr. Shields was a very involved father who didn’t just talk the talk, his sons said.
“He was a participant in our Boy Scout careers all the way from when we were Cub Scouts until we both became Eagle Scouts,” Duncan Shields said.
Mr. Shields volunteered as director of the local Allegheny Trails Council of Boy Scouts of America in the early 1980s and loved helping his kids learn in other ways as well.
“He was a needler who loved to tease,” Gordon Shields said, laughing. “But he was also very focused and detail-oriented. He was actively involved with our schooling and he helped us put together scrapbooks of the postcards we collected.”
Their father also developed a love for sailing and in 1974 sailed a catamaran around Diamond Head State Monument in Oahu, Hawaii.
“He also liked to sail on small lakes, like Deep Creek, Md.,” Gordon Shields said. “He even bought a little sailboat when we lived in Mt. Lebanon.”
Traveling so much also gave their father a special perspective on life, his sons said.
“He and my mom were really enlightened for their age,” Gordon Shields said. “They were open to other cultures, other races, other thoughts. And that was always meaningful to me.”
Their father, who also served as an elder in the Presbyterian Church, was a compassionate man who paid attention to the needs of others, his sons said.
“He really appreciated being with people,” Duncan Shields said. “He was an influencer who had his own way of thinking.”
“He was happy until the end,” Gordon Shields added. “He lived a good life, and he was a positive, happy person.”
Along with his sons, Mr. Shields is survived by seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. His funeral was Jan. 18. Memorial donations can be made to: Moorings Park Foundation, 120 Moorings Park Drive, Naples, Fla. 34105.