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Bruce D. McCombe
•Friends
•Trust
•Bonds

The Life and Times
of Bruce McCombe
Third Thoughts
on the
McCombiad

The Life and Times of Bruce McCombe
WAIT!!!
• 1956-1960 Bowdoin College, A.B. Physics
• 1960 Entered graduate school at Brown University, Physics Dept.
• 1961-1966 Graduate Research Assistant for Prof. George Seidel,
Physics Department, Brown University, Ph.D. Physics
• 1966 NAS-NRC Postdoctoral Research Associate at NRL
• 1968 Research Physicist at NRL
• 1970 Superivsory Research Physicist at NRL
• 1974 Head of the Semiconductors Branch at NRL
• 1980 Superintendent of the Electronics Technology Division at NRL
•
•
•
McCombiad July 1982
this
1982 Professor of Physics at SUNY Buffalo
1987-1996 Chairman of the Department of Physics (it was at that
time called the Department of Physics and Astronomy)
• Co-director of the Center for Electronic and Electro-optic Materials
• Center for Advanced Photonics and Electronic Materials
• Center for Spin Effects and Quantum Information in Nanostructures
• McCombiad – Epitaxialogue March 2003
• 2005 SUNY Distinguished Professor
• Vice Provost for Grad. Education and Dean of the Graduate School
• Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences
Please
tell me
isn’t MY
future!!

Now this
is more
like it !

The Life and Times of Bruce McCombe
It’s 25 years and counting, the woes and
debts are mounting,
Since 1982 where memory ends.
‘Twas then the Bard received the muse,
the wit and license to abuse,
As Bruce abandoned NRL and friends.

McCombiad recounted all,
every fart and every fall,
Each sordid, sotted detail was related.
But some came in between the acts,
they’re lost between the lies and facts.
For these the lore is recapitulated.
Third Thoughts on the
McCombiad

Callow Youth
Of early sexual assignations you’ll find
herein no explanations,
the bard will wisely exercise discretion.
But nights in jail and fights in bars, and
vomiting 1 on policemen’s cars,
On these the Bard might chance the odd
digression.
1. vomiting A recurring theme in Bruce’s journey.
Night in jail

Rise Sons of Bowdoin, Rise
A child of Maine, a royal pain,
A Beta boy beneath the eye of Wooglin.
A misspent youth, unkempt – uncouth,
His liver’s in a Mason jar at Bowdoin. 2
2. vomiting confessed and witnessed.
Esquire

Brown Years
At Brown we all met with priorities set
To receive post grad education.
But try as we might we soon lost the fight,
And worked on a dull dissertation.
Preliminary examination, still no sign of
maturation,
The Ph.D. took five years for this bunch.
The Bard insists and will contend, of his five
years full two did spend,
just waiting for our Bruce to go to lunch.

Brown Years
June 23 rd in ’62, Bob and Sandra said “I do”,
Bruce the Scot was left without a room mate.
“Mind if I move in with you? I think we’ll save a
buck or two.”
Half of Bishop’s room went to this cheap skate
Peace and quiet, nevermore,
stores his clothing on the floor,
He uses dirty laundry as his bedding.
Gone forever - half my space,
suddenly he’s in my face,
He’s in my cigarettes and...

... in my wedding!
Arlington, Virginia
July 6, 1963

and in my wedding!
Arlington, Virginia
July 6, 1963
Go to Hell,
McCombe
Hey Bishop,
your fly’s
open.
Preceded by bachelor party 3
3. vomiting

Brown Years
Finding fields to resonate,
finding ways to dissipate.
Finding time to procreate!
Soldering pipes in Wilson Hall,
sneaking out to play softball.
Driving golf balls up the street, 3
cooking food you couldn’t eat.
Brewing beer in garbage cans,
drinking it on Newport’s sands. 3
Wasting time with little purpose
while working on the Fermi surface
3. vomiting Bishop’s bachelor party

Brown Years
So Seidel said at last you’re finished, in fact
your stipend is diminished.
The time is come for your emancipation. 4
Bruce spurned an offer from Bell Lab, to
let the Navy pick up the tab,
For fifteen years of wanton dissipation.
4. Vomiting on a pile of coats stored in a bedroom
during a party ( I am not making this up.)

Dull Dissertation
deHaas-van Alphen studies
Phys. Rev. actually
published this, setting
a regrettable precedent

Thanks to
Dave
Griscom for
the Photos !
Desire Under the Elms
Brown Graduation 1965

Transitions
Brown’s ivyed halls were traded,
for the peeling paint and faded
Walls of NRL on Potomac’s shores.
Two years at most in turn each said,
we never dreamed we’d all be dead
Before we gave up being Navy whores.

Bruce’s brilliant career at NRL
commences.
Great scientists express the
beauty and genius of their
work in their words...

Albert Einstein:
1930
“The most beautiful thing we
can experience is the
mysterious.
It is the source of all
true art and science.”

Bruce Douglas McCombe:
January 1967
“Let’s stick it in a humongous
magnetic field and see what
happens !”

“Let’s stick it in a
humongous
magnetic field and
see what happens!”
He did, and he
hasn’t stopped
since.

Also presented at the
ICPS, Moscow, 1968 5
5. vomiting (Hotel
Sputnik, Leningrad)

“Let’s stick it in a
humongous
magnetic field and
see what happens!”
He did, and he hasn’t stopped since.
PRB: Please
don’t publish
this stuff.
It just
encourages
him.

NRL Director
Transitions
Now Berman was leaving, Schindler
gasping and heaving,
But theirs’ alas was not the mortal blow.
For Bruce who’s no dope told them
“piss up a rope”,
NRL Associate
Director
And promptly shuffled off to Buffalo.

McCombiad – Epitaxialogue March 2003
Transitions
Several others followed soon, to sites as far-
flung as the moon,
And those remaining felt somewhat
denuded.
Taylor, Bishop, Furneaux and Strom, Bruce
thinks these guys got it wrong.
In their departures, all wives were included!

The University at Buffalo
On my first visit to U Buff, our drinks with
dinner weren’t enough.
We hit some bars called “Library” and
“Tomb”.
I found that Bruce was still the same, lots of
drinking, little shame,
He knew the way to every single men’s
room.

The University at Buffalo
On my first visit to U Buff, our drinks with
dinner weren’t enough
We hit some bars called “Library” and
“Tomb”.
I found that Bruce was still the same, lots of
drinking, little shame,
He knew the way to every single men’s
room.

The University at Buffalo
I had a post doc from U Buff, a brilliant
diamond in the rough.
And what he said and asked will surely
shock us.
“At SUNY Buff B.D. is God. At NRL was
B.D. God?”
The Bard said, “Yes if the God is Bacchus.”

The University at Buffalo
At conferences we’ve often met,
March meetings you can sometimes get
in trouble by consorting with our Bruce.
East Bal’more avenue springs to mind.
The sights and sounds you there can find
make a sailor blush but not our Bruce.
Where wide-eyed students don’t belong, nor naïve
colleagues dragged along,
the girl upon the bar – she wore no clothes!
With Bruce and students really roaring, the dance she
did – it wasn’t boring.
Poor Nemanich, she really liked his nose.

“The Renee-sance”
McCombe, McCombe was running free,
until Renee cut short his spree.
She reined him in,
this lewd and loathsome lout.
First rectitude and sanity,
then somewhat less profanity
And then she actually tried to
dry him out.

X
“The Renee-sance”
McCombe, McCombe was running wild,
Renee corralled his inner child, X
Civility awaited in her snare.
No more smokes and far less booze,
for babes he may no longer cruise
She even makes him change his underwear.
X
X

“The Renee-sance”
Seventy years can take
its toll, his waist could
use a tuck and roll,
The Beard is gray, the
hair on top is thin.
His discourse is at best banal as he
describes his root canal,
For every tooth that’s lost he gains a chin.

“The Renee-sance”
Seventy years can take
its toll, his waist could
use a tuck and roll,
The Beard is gray, the
hair on top is thin.
His discourse is at best banal as he
describes his root canal,
For every tooth that’s lost he gains a chin.

“The Renee-sance”
Forty years can take its
toll, his waist could use a
tuck and roll,
The Beard is gray, the
hair on top is thin.
His discourse is at best banal as he
describes his root canal,
For every tooth that’s lost he gains a chin.

“The Renee-sance”
Forty years can take its
toll, his waist could use a
tuck and roll,
The Beard is gray, the
hair on top is thin.
His discourse is at best banal as he
describes his root canal,
I am so....
COOL
For every tooth that’s lost he gains a chin.

“The Renee-sance”
Forty years can take its
toll, his waist could use a
tuck and roll,
The Beard is gray, the
hair on top is thin.
His discourse is at best banal as he
describes his root canal,
NOT!!
For every tooth that’s lost he gains a chin.

“The Renee-sance”
McCombe, McCombe, he’s seventy,
wounded is his vanity,
Three score and ten years since he left the
womb!
Against the gathering darkness railing,
vision, hearing, reason failing.
And now he needs a map for every men’s
room.

The Bone of Contention:
The Bard’s Intervention
Only Bruce would think it wise to hire a
plane to advertise,
That sweet Renee is fifteen years his junior.
What’s worse, if Bruce had had his way,
the number fifty would display,

The Bone of Contention:
The Bard’s Intervention
Only Bruce would think it wise to hire a
plane to advertise,
That sweet Renee is fifteen years his junior.
What’s worse, if Bruce had had his way,
the number fifty would display,
When he dropped his drawers to rudely
moon her.

The Bone of Contention:The Bard’s Intervention
She wants revenge both sharp and hard,
For this she has employed the Bard,
And tells a secret we will all remember.
His plan to moon her was rejected
because he didn’t want inspected

The Bone of Contention:The Bard’s Intervention
She wants revenge both sharp and hard,
For this she has employed the Bard,
And tells a secret we will all remember.
His plan to moon her was rejected
because he didn’t want inspected
His aging, withered
CENSORED
Office of the Dean
College of Arts and
Sciences

Renee’s campaign has made Bruce sane,
And brought him new distinction.
Center Director, Distinguished Professor,
Vice Provost for Grad Education
And now they’ve actually made him
Dean of CAS !!
And now they’ve actually made him dean
What were they
thinking ?? !!

Renee’s Revenge
With steely gaze and furrowed brow,
Defending every sacred cow,
Bruce sits on high with academic brass.
For all the trappings of his lofty post
His day job ain’t worth wet compost,
He’s got
“SHARED GOVERNANCE”
tatooed on his ass !

Bruce was smarter than the rest,
He learned it fast, he learned it best.
The Bard should know,
I followed in his dust...
How sweet it is he’s tightly knitted,
to one by whom he is outwitted.
Some think it’s sad but – NAAH –
it’s only just!

PRB: We
tried to warn
you.
You’ll never
learn.

July 6, 1963 January 1, 2005

Encomium
(En-McComb-ium)

January 1, 2005
July 6, 1963

July 6, 1963

From beginning to end, the listener
must lend
His ear and his wit to the roasting.
We’ll recite some nonsense at
Bruce’s expense,
And then raise our glass for the
toasting.
Preliminary examination, still no
signs of maturation,
The Ph.D. took five years for this
bunch.
The Bard insists and will contend,
of his five years full two did spend
Just waiting for our Bruce to go to
lunch.

Transitions
Brown’s ivyed halls were traded, for the
peeling paint and faded
Walls of NRL on Potomac’s shores.
Two years at most in turn each said, we
never dreamed we’d all be dead
Before we gave up being Navy whores.

Renee’s Revenge
With steely gaze and furrowed brow,
Defending every sacred cow,
Bruce sits on high with academic brass.
For all the trappings of his lofty post
His day job ain’t worth wet compost,
He’s got
“SHARED GOVERNANCE”
tatooed on his ass !

Rise Sons of Bowdoin, Rise
A child of Maine, a royal pain,
A Beta boy beneath the eye of Wooglin.
A misspent youth, unkempt – uncouth,
His liver’s in a Mason jar at Bowdoin. 2
2. vomiting is inferred if not implicit.
Esquire

Bruce McCombe has been my friend and professional colleague for
almost 50 years. We met as entering graduate students in physics at
Brown University in 1960. Our daily association continued after
graduate school for over 15 years at the Naval Research Laboratory
(NRL). We began as co-workers in the Semiconductors Branch of NRL,
and eventually I served as one of Bruce’s section heads while he was
head of the Semiconductors Branch, and later as one of his branch heads
when he became superintendent of the Electronics Technology Division.
A few years after Bruce joined the department of physics at SUNY
Buffalo I became an adjunct professor there, thereby extending our
association into the academic phase of Bruce’s career. Clearly, Bruce
McCombe is someone whom I know very well and for whom I have the
utmost respect, admiration, and affection. More importantly for
present purposes, I have been in a position of direct observation for
most of his professional career.