Bruce Canoles
Bruce was born in Birmingham, Alabama on January 6, 1953 and grew up in the rural Jefferson County community of Minor. As a youth, when not wandering the woods and the creek banks, he spent much of his time in the Boy Scouts program earning the rank of Eagle Scout at age 14. In 1967, he was chosen to be the Eagle speaker at the Birmingham Area Councils Eagle banquet. Already expressing an interest in journalism, Southern Living Magazine was selected as his corporate sponsor for the event. His interest in scouting and swimming continued through his teen years as he worked as a summer camp staffer and later as a lifeguard and swimming instructor.
He graduated from Minor High School in 1971 and worked his way through Walker College before transferring to Auburn University. At Auburn, Bruce’s keen interest in politics flourished as he was twice elected president of the Auburn University Young Democrats. In 1974, he became the first Auburn student ever elected to the Lee County Democratic Executive Committee serving as the Committee Treasurer. During that time, he met a local state trooper who was attempting to unseat a powerful and entrenched Lee County Sheriff. He subsequently became the campaign manager for the upstart challenger. Though the campaign failed to defeat the incumbent sheriff, it gave Bruce an early glimpse into the uniquely powerful office of county sheriff.
Bruce went on to earn a BS and MS at Auburn achieving membership in the National Economics Honor Society Omicron Delta Epsilon. In 1977 he was awarded a Graduate Assistantship to pursue doctoral studies at the University of Illinois. In earning his PhD, he jointly studied in the University of Illinois College of Law passing prelims in Agricultural Law, Tax Law, Finance and Economic Theory.
In 1980, starting as a commodity specialist, he began a 21 year career with Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Smith. Moving into retail brokerage and branch office management, Bruce had a successful career with the firm highlighted by being named Resident Manager of the Year in 1995. During the brokerage firm years, he authored or co-authored several published technical articles in journals such as The Journal of Futures Markets. In 1996, he was invited to the Chicago Board of Trade to discuss a breakthrough article he had published on the profile of commodity market participants. Bruce retired from Merrill Lynch as a vice president in 2001 to move back to Alabama to start a real estate investment company and pursue a life-long dream to write fiction. Settling in May’s Bend on Logan Martin Lake, with his wife Jan, he got involved in the community and the local Episcopal Parish serving on the St. Simon Peter vestry including three terms as Senior Warden.
Bruce has always believed that the best novelists craft their creations from a full and varied life experience. He has been fortunate to travel extensively and share time with many interesting and extraordinary individuals including fishing trips with actor, Henry Winkler and the outdoor sports retailer, Johnny Morris as well as hunting adventures with Chuck Yeager and Tony Stewart.
“Real life is the seed bed for good fiction.”
Dogs of Summer is his second completed novel.
