Thank you, Mike, for sharing this news, tragic though it is.

Bruce was one of the shining lights of the 1978 class. As I remember it, that was the last class that got to vote on who would play whom in the plays we were performing, and Bruce impressed us all so much in our first days at Winedale that we entrusted him with the roles of both Nick Bottom and Mercutio. And he ran with those parts, investing them with so much energy and brio and wit that, like the characters in the plays, you wanted to follow him everywhere. Like David said about Benedick and Bruce, I can't hear the Queen Mab speech or Pyramus' rage over Thisbe's death without hearing Bruce's voice. It did indeed do any man's heart good to hear him roar.

Robert

On Fri, Apr 17, 2026 at 9:06 AM Michael Godwin via Winedale-l <winedale-l@lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
Here's the bio entry on Bruce at the American Academy of Diplomacy. 

https://www.academyofdiplomacy.org/members-1/wharton/david-bruce

Mike



On Fri, Apr 17, 2026 at 8:15 AM Michael Godwin <mnemonic@gmail.com> wrote:

On Fri, Apr 17, 2026 at 8:03 AM Maria Black <mariablack1@gmail.com> wrote:
No! He was among the very best of men!
Sent from my iPhone

On Apr 17, 2026, at 7:08 AM, 'TERRY GALLOWAY' via Shakespeare at Winedale Email List <shakespeare-at-winedale-email-list@googlegroups.com> wrote:

He was a lovely, kind sweetheart of a man. And David, thank you for that photo you took of Bruce and me rehearsing the play shall not be named. I always loved the way he was handsome. 
Terry
Sent from my iPad

On Apr 17, 2026, at 2:37 AM, David Sharpe <dpsharpeaustin@gmail.com> wrote:


I'll never be able to think of the role of Benedick in 'Much Ado About Nothing' without thinking of Bruce Wharton and hearing his voice. He did an exemplary and sterling job of embodying the role.

David Sharpe. 

On Thu, Apr 16, 2026 at 11:02 PM Michael Godwin <mnemonic@gmail.com> wrote:

According to reports I'm getting from Zimbabwean friends, former U.S. Ambassador David Bruce Wharton has died. I don't have much more news than that. I expect there will be obituaries in the national press tomorrow. 

For those who may not know him, Bruce Wharton (we knew him as Zimbabweans knew him, as "Bruce") attended Shakespeare-at-Winedale in 1978 and 1979.

Even those of us who do know him may not know that he was beloved by Zimbabweans.