Bruce Staffel Meador passed away peacefully, willfully, and gracefully, surrounded by his family on March 19, 2019, at the age of 93.

Bruce was born on September 18, 1925 in San Antonio, Texas, the son of Hazel Staffel, whose father immigrated from Germany, and Armour Ross Meador, a dentist and practical joker. At the turn of the century Bruce's grandfather Ferdinand Staffel came to the United States from Witzenhausen, Germany, where he owned a paper making company. Bruce had three brothers, Ross, Henry and David, and a sister, Hazel. Family was important, and Bruce grew up spending time at the family ranch near Encinal, Texas during hunting season and Rockport, Texas where they summered. He had a large extended family in Texas and had many happy memories of family gatherings.

Bruce graduated from high school in 1943 and joined the Merchant Marines. His ship, the SS Jeremiah O'Brian, was torpedoed during World War II and is now a museum. Following WWII, Bruce received a BA in Economics from the University of Texas, where he also completed his MA and PhD in Education. He studied under a renowned scholar in the field of education, Dr. George Sanchez.  His dissertation, completed in 1959, was titled, The Education of Minority Groups in Hays County, Texas. Bruce's seminal work looked at social justice for bilingual students in Texas.

As a doctoral student, Bruce received a research fellowship to examine the depiction of Mexican history in US textbooks. He lived in Mexico City for one year with his wife, Betty, and their first child, Ross, was born there. This began his lifelong connection to and advocacy for the people and culture of Mexico, including Mexican immigrants in the United States.

Following the completion of his doctoral studies, he began his tenure as a professor of education at Arizona State University (ASU). While there, he and colleague Bob Roessel worked with multiple Native American groups on issues of equity in education. He also worked with Volunteers in Service to America as a field supervisor on Arizona tribal lands.

In 1965, while on sabbatical from ASU, Bruce accepted a post-doctoral fellowship at Western Behavioral Sciences Institute in La Jolla, California where eminent psychologist Carl Rogers was a visiting fellow. Rogers was known for his revolutionary idea of client centered therapy, a major shift towards humanistic psychology. Bruce and Carl became colleagues and along with others founded the Center for Studies of the Person in 1967. With Douglas Land and Bill Coulson, Bruce founded the La Jolla Program in summer of 1968, with workshops and trainings around the world focused on encounter groups. Bruce remained with the Center for Studies of the Person until his death.

The family moved from La Jolla to their ranch in Ramona in 1974. Bruce and Betty divorced in 1978. They both continued to live on their ranch, albeit with separate homes and eventually both remarried.

Bruce enjoyed traveling and conducted annual La Jolla Program workshops in Berlin for 10 years, also meeting with private groups in former East-Berlin. He met his wife Heidrun there in 1984 while facilitating a workshop on client centered therapy. Their son Christopher was born in 1985, and they lived on their Ramona ranch for the remainder of Bruce's life.

Bruce loved his community. He was a kind and generous man who enjoyed listening and talking with people wherever he was. He had a brilliant wit and unfailing humor and often had you laughing before you knew he was telling a joke. He also wrote poetry his entire life, producing several books of poems, including a book of haiku. We shall always be profoundly grateful for his innermost interest in listening to others and his equanimity as a humanist and philanthropist.

Bruce is survived by his wife Heidrun, sons Christopher Meador and Ross Meador, daughters Liz Meador and Mary Meador, brother David, seven grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.  He was preceded in death by his brothers Ross and Henry, sister Hazel, and by his grandson Matthew Jankovsky. A memorial service will be held at 12:00pm on April 6 ^th 2019, at The First Congregational Church in Ramona. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to Doctors Without Borders.