Bruce Ball

May 11th, 1977 - August 12th, 2021

Memorial

Mementos

Loved Ones

Hello family, friends, and co-workers, as most of you know already, our beloved friend Bruce Ball passed away unexpectedly on the 12th of August at the age of 44 from unrecoverable strokes.

Bruce served as a Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force and in 2013 he received an assignment to come to the US with his family to work on the F-35 program. Bruce retired from the RAF in 2018 and continued his exemplary influence and leadership with the F-35 ALIS team by becoming a civil service employee for the UK MOD still stationed in the US. Bruce and his family have lived in the US for over 8 years: intially in Niceville, FL; then McLean, VA; and finally in Orlando, FL, making friends wherever they went and in countless other communities across the US and abroad.

Bruce leaves behind a huge hole in the hearts of his amazing wife Caz and daughters Sam and Hollie, and all his broader family, friends and coworkers. We miss you Bruce.

Events

PAST EVENT

Bruce Ball's Celebration of Life

Sep 5th, 2021

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM

(GMT-4:00) Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Tributes

Share a favorite memory, send condolences, and honor Bruce’s life with a heartfelt message.

Greg Temple

Miss you brother, we said goodbye again this past weekend to you, by sending off Caz, Sam and Hollie home to your amazing family in the UK. Bitter sweet, but they are home now with family. They finally get to hug, hold and be there for your three most important ladies in the world. To us, they represented everything good you brought to our lives. Sam and her intelligence and ability to tell an engaging story that grabbed everyone’s attention. I hope she doesn’t take up ALIS/ODIN work, then I believe us both would meet our match in putting it all together and making sense of the chaos. I think, maybe that food truck idea we always talked about would need to be our next career. Hollie and her charm, wit and sometime dark sense of humor that made us laugh that all together lit up any room. Her adventurous spark and love for motorcycle riding would rival yours, I am not sure I can keep up, even if I tried. I couldn’t keep up with you with ALIS1 and your bike making runs to the beach for some fishing or just a bite to eat in some random cafe you found that had an amazing dish you loved. Caroline, her compassion, love and calming words and hugs that cut through the noise of life and focused on the important things, people and relationships that will always endure. No one got to the point and made important things the focus like you Bruce, work or in life, Caz embraced that as well in her strength and how she led this family through the past 2 months. Through these 3 amazing ladies, we got to hold on just a little longer to you and your memory. They are our family now, like every military family regardless of country, you choose a close group of life long friends you grow close to while away from your blood relatives, that you will forever cherish and move mountains for. We get to see the best of you live on in the lives of these ladies as they embark on their next journey. Thank you Bruce, never a goodbye, counting the days until we see the ladies in the UK this fall. Had a few old fashions this weekend, even used your exotic bitters and cherries you left behind… I’ll put them to good use! Aztec Chocolate bitters, filthy cherries, some syrup and some Woodfords, just the way you made them, just without that million dollar smile you had when you would serve them up to us. Cheers Bruce, always with us.

Published October 11th, 2021

David Bint

Bruce meant so much to me during my time at secondary school. Such a great mate, we never fell out and had a lot of fun in weekends in his house in Lower Layam. He helped me survive my first couple of years at secondary school when I was being bullied. I'll remember the afternoons and evenings playing Amstrad games together. We never finished The Train, although with a bit more time I hoped we would. I got to ride his horse Sandy once (not very well) and his sit-in lawnmower (better). I had a great time at the wedding - it was the only thing I came back to Colchester for during term time in 3 years at university. I never gave up that one day we'd catch up again. Bruce was never that good at returning messages and I really wish he'd been able to make it to see me in Orlando 8 years ago. I'd hoped that one day he'd be back in England. Clearly not. I hadn't seen him for nearly 20 years but I still talk about the influence he had on my life. I'll never forget you mate.

Published September 15th, 2021

Eben Mayorga

Bruce’s table for the Celebration of Life.

Published September 6th, 2021

Martin Bishop

That bloody rifle kicked like a mule! What an after work expedition this was. Walmart, guns, ammo and whiskey - what could go wrong with all that in the trunk of a Honda? Haha, Great times :-)

Published September 21st, 2021