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Bruce Jessop

DOB – January 14, 1948

This is accurate as of October 2009.

I signed up with Alex Graham in Ottawa on March 14, 1968 and we drove out to Regina together. For the first few days there was only a couple of others there and we were on our own until the rest of the troop arrived bit by bit.

After training I was posted to Regina Town Station which made me think that I had done something wrong. I was there a short time and then posted to Indian Head for 6 months and then back to Regina. I think that if I had been posted elsewhere I might have stayed in but coming from Ottawa the culture shock was too much for me (my apologies to people from the prairies). I decided that this was not the life for me and purchased my discharge in September 1969 to attend university.

I attended the University of Regina graduating in 1974 with a Bachelor of Administration degree. During two of the summers I worked at a coal mining operation near Sparwood, BC. Al Hansen was stationed at Fernie, BC and I roomed with him the first summer and part of the second when I was replaced by his wife Anne. He and I kept in touch over the years and I went to visit him in Saskatoon in May 1997 when he was terminally ill.

After university I ended up in Edmonton working for the City in Human Resources from 1975 to 1984. During that time I was able to get a secondment to Bell Canada and went to work on a project in Saudi Arabia for a year in 1980-81. I was able to travel to Europe, Africa and came home around the world going through Thailand, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.

There was a recession in the early 1980’s, the City was downsizing and I took a severance package and returned to Ottawa.

On returning to Ottawa I got a job in a hospital in Human Resources and stayed there for almost 14 years and was again the victim of a downsizing in 1998. For 5 years I did various HR contract and consulting jobs and then in 2004 was hired on by the City of Ottawa in HR. As of October 2009 I am still here. Retirement is beckoning but we still have two kids on the payroll. One of my retirement plans is to buy and RV and try to visit all the surviving troop mates.

We travel quite a bit having been to France, Cuba, Mexico (twice), Guatemala, St. Martin, cruise in the Caribbean, many trips to the states (Florida 11 times now), California, Arizona and many other states.

I married in 1986 to Francoise and we have two sons Daniel and Mark. Daniel is 23 and has plans for a career in police work. He isn’t considering the RCMP because of not knowing where he will end up. Mark is 20 and is at my old alma mater, the U of R, for Fine Arts.