Biography
Bruce with his OHP patrol car.
Born in Canadian, Texas, Bruce Peoples grew up on the farm that his grandparents homesteaded near Woodward, Oklahoma. He graduated from Woodward High School in 1964 and has lived in Custer County since 1973. He attended Northwestern Oklahoma University majoring in Police Science.
After high school, Bruce joined the Air Force and served as a flight engineer on a helicopter rescue crew out of Eilson AFB in Fairbanks, Alaska. He participated in numerous search and rescue operations of lost and downed aircraft and pilots. These operations also included medical evacuations. Bruce was later transferred to Shaw AFB in South Carolina to train crews for helicopter combat rescue. This training included machine gun training, rescue hoist work, jungle survival and many other aspects of rescue operations in a combat environment that these crews would need in Vietnam.
In 1970, Bruce returned to Oklahoma and worked for Topographical Engineering as a surveyor, managed a farm and ranch operation in Woodward County, worked at Atwood's Farm Supply and in the oilfield for Rine Drilling before being accepted by the Oklahoma Highway Patrol Academy in 1973.
Bruce spent the next 33 years as a trooper with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol (OHP) working in Custer County his entire career. During his tenure with the OHP, he was on the team assigned to protect a number of dignitaries...among them Presidents Reagan, Carter and Bush. He was the team leader of the OHP's Western Oklahoma Tactical Team, one of three such teams in the state. These teams received special training to deal with a range of situations from tracking to prison riots. Bruce participated in quelling several prison riots, a civil riot in Idabel and a number of manhunts, foremost among them the hunt for Gene Leroy Hart in Locust Grove. As tracker for the Tactical Team, he tracked down an escaped murderer by Sulphur, Oklahoma.
Bruce flying his light sport aircraft.
Bruce Peoples received the Chief of the Highway Patrol Commendation for his investigation that lead to the identification of a hit and run victim who was so badly injured she could not tell authorities or medical who she was. After a year of work, he finally identified the woman and she was reunited with her family in North Carolina.
In 1985 Bruce was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant and supervised the daily operations of Troop H, which included 25 state troopers in Beckham, Custer, Dewey, Roger Mills, and Washita Counties. He had the responsibility of preparing the annual budget for his troop level operations, managing the fleet of patrol cars and communications equipment, as well as inventory and control of all other patrol issued equipment. He has conducted and supervised investigations into criminal activities and internal investigations. In addition, he has organized and supervised emergency response to many large scale traffic accidents and natural disasters including the May 3rd and Cordell tornadoes.
Bruce driving the 1936 F-20 Farmall tractor he restored.
After retiring from the OHP in 2006, Bruce accepted, and still holds, the position of Special Investigator for Custer County District Attorney Dennis Smith.
Bruce and his wife, Diane, currently reside near Weatherford. He has two daughters, Brook and Paige, and four grandchildren.
Over the years, Bruce has used his mechanical, metal, and woodworking skills to design and build hovercraft, three airboats, and restore two cars and a 1936 F-20 Farmall tractor. The tractor was donated to, and now displayed in, the Heartland of America Museum in Weatherford, Oklahoma. Bruce owns and flies a light sport aircraft, known as a Pegasus powered parachute. He recently used the aircraft to look for the body of a possible murder victim south of Cordell, Oklahoma. His latest project was the total restoration of a 32-foot pontoon house boat.