C. Bruce Anderson 12/16/2025

C. Bruce Anderson of Maplewood, MN died on December 16, 2025, at the age of 86. A memorial service will be held on Friday, January 23, 2026, in the William Hamel Chapel at Harmony Gardens Senior Living, 1438 County Road C East, Maplewood, MN. Visitation will begin at 1:30 pm, memorial service at 2:00, with fellowship and refreshments to follow until 4:30.
Bruce was born in St. Louis Park, MN, on January 21, 1939, to Carl Victor Anderson, who was an auto mechanic, and Mabel Ingeborg Johnson, who worked as a bookkeeper. He grew up in a modest home on Mackey Avenue with his sister Phyllis, who was six years older. Bruce’s first name was Carl, after his dad, so with family and friends he went by “Bruce.” In high school, he had six classmates also named “Bruce Anderson.” To avoid confusion, he decided to go by “C. Bruce Anderson,” and that was his signature for the rest of his life.
Carl and Mabel Anderson were founding members of Park Baptist Church, where Bruce sang in the choir from a young age. One Sunday morning in 1953, when Bruce was in ninth grade, he and a friend in the choir loft spotted a new family in the congregation with two teenage daughters. After the service the two young men hurried to the foyer to make sure the new family would feel especially welcome. The young ladies were Alice Huffman and her sister Linda, who had just moved to town from Indiana with their little brother Steve and parents Charlie and Naomi.
A few months later, Bruce and Alice went out for ice cream after a church event – their first date. In 1960, they married and moved into a garden level apartment in the Como Park neighborhood of St. Paul. They were both sophomores at Bethel College in St. Paul then, where Bruce was majoring in psychology and Alice in education.
Bruce was very smart, but he was not a stellar student academically. When he felt God calling him to become a pastor, he worried that his grades would keep him out of the seminary and decided it was time to get serious. His extra effort was successful, and he was admitted to Bethel Seminary. During the seminary years, Bruce worked as a bus driver for extra money, but Alice was the breadwinner as a seventh-grade English teacher. During the summers, they worked on the staff at Trout Lake Camp, where they made lifelong friends.
In 1965, Bruce graduated from seminary and the young couple moved to Grand Rapids, MN, where Bruce became the pastor of Faith Baptist Church, and was ordained in 1967. Their son David was born in 1966, followed by Douglas in 1968. Bruce then pastored at Trinity Baptist Church in St. Paul, where Dennis was born in 1971. In 1973, the young family moved to Fergus Falls, MN, where Bruce pastored First Baptist Church for 10 years. In the early 1980’s the Andersons moved to White Bear Lake, MN, where Bruce pastored at First Baptist Church, which later became Eagle Brook Church.
The South Dakota chapters of Bruce and Alice’s ministry began in 1991, when they moved to Yankton, SD, and Bruce became the pastor at Calvary Baptist Church. Then came Calvary Baptist Church in Chamberlain, SD. When Bruce retired for the first time, he and Alice decided to settle in Sioux Falls, SD. Never one to sit still, Bruce joined the pastoral staff at Central Baptist Church, where he ministered to seniors.
In 2017, Bruce and Alice returned to Minnesota, and Bruce returned on a part-time basis to Trinity Baptist in St. Paul, which had been renamed Lifepoint Church. Even after his second retirement from Lifepoint, Bruce remained active in bible studies and other ministries at Calvary Church in Roseville, where he and Alice attended faithfully.
Bruce had a special passion for ministry to law enforcement officers and incarcerated men and women. In the mid-1970’s he started a police chaplaincy program in Fergus Falls, MN. For the rest of his life, chaplaincy was an important part of his ministry. In every place where he pastored a church, he also provided counseling, prayer, bible studies, and other ministries in police departments, jails, and prisons, on a volunteer basis. Bruce’s ministry as a chaplain touched innumerable lives.
Like his sister Phyllis, Bruce was gregarious and had a lively sense of humor. He loved to tell stories and jokes. His hearty laugh was distinctive, as was his baritone singing voice. From his dad, he learned a love of the outdoors, which he and Alice shared and passed on to their boys. The family took innumerable camping trips in a pop-up tent trailer, and canoe trips in the Minnesota’s north woods, including two memorable journeys with Alice’s brother Steve and his family. Bruce was an excellent swimmer, a skilled woodworker, and an amateur astronomer who saw in the heavens the wonders of God’s creation.
In later life, Bruce remained healthy and active. He enjoyed long walks in the woods and was Alice’s primary caregiver for many years after she suffered a stroke in 2009. Over time, though, his kidney function diminished and he was diagnosed with renal failure. In 2022, he started kidney dialysis three days each week. The routine was demanding and left him exhausted, especially when early treatment times meant getting out of bed before 5 a.m.
In 2023, Bruce and Alice moved to Harmony Gardens Senior Living in Maplewood, where he lived in an apartment and Alice lived in long-term care in the same building. This arrangement was ideal for them, as they could spend time together in Bruce’s apartment and enjoy meals in the dining hall with their “lunch bunch” friends.
In late 2024, Bruce fell and fractured his spine. While recuperating from that injury, he decided it was time to give up driving. More falls followed. Thankfully he suffered no serious injuries, but his strength was diminishing, and he recognized that he was losing mental clarity. In August of 2025, Bruce moved into a long-term care room three doors down the hall from Alice.
On December 2, 2025, Bruce and Alice decided it was time for him to stop dialysis and start hospice care. Thankfully, hospice services could be provided to Bruce in his room. Over the next two weeks, family and friends gathered to support Bruce and Alice in his last days and took turns at his bedside. On the morning of December 16, with Alice holding his hand, and his favorite nurse Tiffany standing by, Bruce took his last breath and died peacefully.
Bruce was preceded in death by his parents, Carl and Mabel, and his sister Phyllis. He is survived by Alice, Dave and his wife Kim Anderson (Duluth, MN), Doug and his wife Angie Miller (Arden Hills, MN), Dennis and his wife Ann Anderson (St. Paul, MN), 10 grandchildren and 5 great grandchildren.  Cremation services provided by Bakken-Young Funeral & Cremation Services.