Bruce T. Ikeda

Bruce T. Ikeda, affectionately known as “Big Guy” and “The Mayor”, joined his parents George and Janet Ikeda in heaven on Wednesday, January 4^th, 2023. He was 63 years old.

With inspiring determination, relentless optimism and grit, Bruce bravely battled cancer to continue to make lasting memories with his family and friends.

He will be remembered as a wonderful husband, father, grandfather, sibling, uncle, friend, and mentor. Since his passing, his family has received an outpouring of love and wonderful memories from family and friends. The common theme about Bruce was he was one of a kind; charismatic, jovial, genuine, and kindhearted.

Most recently, his three grandchildren became his new pride and joy. They sweetly spent almost every weekend joining him on an adventure; hikes, bike rides, and playing on the playground. They brought lots of love and laughter to him in his final days on earth.

He had a tremendous passion for meeting people and a sincere interest in learning about others and their families. He was truly blessed and grateful to have so many amazing people in his life and took great pride in connecting families in his world.

He had a deep love for his family. He is survived by his wife Anne Dooley Ikeda. His children Brian (Casey), Casey (Kirstie), and Jamie. His grandchildren Hana, Grant, and Quinn. His siblings Lynn (Ed), Jane (Steve), and Doug (Tanya). His nephews Eric and Danny and niece Becky. His amazing extended relatives and hundreds of friends.

He grew up in Allentown PA, Tamano Japan, and Emmaus PA. He graduated from Emmaus High School in 1977 and from Muhlenberg College in 1981. He swam competitively from the age of 6-19, which led to a lifelong habit of getting up at 4:30am to work out.

His first job in sales began at IBM and extended 29 years. He started his career in Scranton PA, moved to White Plains NY, and finally landed on the Main Line of Philadelphia. During this time his passion for creating lifelong friendships really flourished. He later spent 12 years at Arthur J. Gallagher where he relished the opportunity to mentor younger teammates in sales and life. Upon retirement, he became a volunteer mentor at the Youth Mentoring Partnership and a Board Member at Help Hope Live. Here he found great joy and fulfillment.

After family, sports were his second passion. He relished watching his sons’ teams play basketball, football and most importantly a sport he had never heard of growing up, lacrosse.

He had the great fortune of helping the Herzlich family start the Conestoga Youth Lacrosse program in 1997. It became his all-consuming joy. The memories of Bruce around the lacrosse field began with coaching. Later, he made sure to be at every one of his sons’ games where he would hand out halftime waters to the referees, even if they called penalties on his sons. Later, he was able travel around the country during the boys’ college years to watch them compete. Finally, he readily volunteered to keep an eye out for talent during his son Casey’s college coaching career.

Lastly, the Thanksgiving holiday exemplified the main things he loved family, friends and food. Thanksgiving was a large legendary feast that he would begin preparing weeks in advance. It also led to the last prayer we shared again before his passing, “Thank you for the food before us, the people around us, and the love between us”.

One of his final requests was a gathering of friends at Great American Pub. Please join his family on Sunday January 15^th from 4pm-7pm at the Great American Pub in Conshohocken (123 Fayette St, Conshohocken, PA 19428).

A church service will be held on Monday, January 16^th at 10:30am at Saint Norbert’s Church (50 Leopard Rd, Paoli, PA 19301). A luncheon will follow at Waynesborough Country Club (440 Darby Paoli Rd, Paoli, PA 19301).

In lieu of flowers, Bruce requested donations in his name to Help Hope Live at https://helphopelive.org/donate/donate-to-help-hope-live/, the Youth Mentoring Partnership at  https://youthmp.org/donate/, and to read “TIP” by Dave Gordon https://davegordon.net/tip-a-simple-strategy-to-inspire-high-performance-and-lasting-success/