Robert Bruce Mccallum

Raleigh Robert Bruce McCallum fell asleep in the Lord at his home on Saturday, June 18, 2016 surrounded by his loving family after living with Parkinson’s Disease for 25 years. Bruce was born in 1935 in Detroit Michigan and grew up in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY, the son of Helen Fowler and Robert Heather McCallum.  He earned Bachelors and Masters degrees in Aeronautical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, respectively.  At MIT he met his beloved wife, Helen Petrides, where they were both research staff in the same lab.  In 1973 he joined IBM and moved to Raleigh, where he and his family lived, except for two years on assignment in England. Bruce was very generous with his time and talents as a woodworker and toymaker, and with his ability to fix anything.  He loved nature and the outdoors, and had a passion for canoeing, hiking and climbing mountains, among them Mt. Whitney, Mt. Katahdin, and Mt. Olympus in Greece.  He will be remembered always for his love for his family, his gentleness, creativity, enthusiasm to help others, sense of humor, patience, and determination to overcome his adversity. He is survived by his loving wife of 51 years, Helen, his son Andrew Kachites McCallum and wife Donna (Amherst, MA), daughter Rebecca Eleni McCallum and Tony Hernandez (Middletown, CT), beloved grandsons Theo and Lucas McCallum, and by his sister Heather Taylor and her husband Colin, his sister Leslae Rose, and many nieces and nephews. Bruces family will forever be grateful to his Hospice nurse Lisa Ginsburg  for her devoted care, as well as to other aides, friends, neighbors, and volunteers for their support and help. Visitation will be held at Holy Trinity Church, 5000 Lead Mine Road, Raleigh, NC. on Monday June 20, 2016 from 7:00 p.m to 9:00 p.m. with a Trisagion prayer service beginning at 7:30 p.m.  Funeral service will be held on Tuesday, June 21, 2016 at 11:00 a.m., also at the church.  Burial will be held at Raleigh Memorial Park. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Holy Trinity Orthodox Church Building Fund or to Transitions LifeCare (formerly Hospice of Wake County). May his memory be eternal.