Robert Bruce "Bruce" Lippert

Other Events:

• Name: Bruce Lippert
• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-344559

Notes:

Lifetimes: Outgoing nature led to a second career in the restaurant business

By Valerie Hill Special to the Record

Bruce Lippert was the sixth generation of Lipperts to live in Kitchener, his family name long associated with entrepreneurs. His forefathers ran numerous industries including clockmaking, furniture-making, even outfitting holiday coaches.

But this would not be Bruce's path. He was a people person and chose to work as a server in restaurants after a career in the insurance business.

"He had a genuine interest in people," said his sister Linda Hancock. "He was very outgoing."

That outgoing nature would be his strength when, in the early 1980s, Bruce came out as a gay man.

"Waterloo Region was more conservative back then," said son Eric Lippert. "I'm sure it was difficult for him.

"I think he handled it very well."

Eric said his dad was the most affectionate man he'd ever met, a man who modelled kindness, and who took care of others. It couldn't have been easy hiding his homosexuality as a young man, though he always chose to have a positive outlook and to see the good in everything and everyone.

That attitude would be a guiding star throughout his life.

Bruce was born May 6, 1950, in Kitchener, one of four kids of Bob and Marg Lippert. Bob worked as a veneer salesman in the furniture industry and Marg was a housing co-ordinator for Wilfrid Laurier University.

The family lived near Victoria Park, in a house built by their great-grandfather in a neighbourhood full of kids. Their early lives were idyllic, with the park at their doorstep, Hancock said. In the winter, they just needed to slip on a pair of skates and off they flew across the pond. Spring, when the geese and swans were nesting, was a bit more challenging, as there's nothing quite as ferocious as "a bird mama" protecting her young, Hancock noted. Kids had to run for their lives on the way to school, or take the long way around.

Bruce, she said, was very active and particularly loved climbing up on the dining room table or the ancient willow tree by the water.

Happy times were also spent at the Lippert cottage on Lake Huron, a place still owned by the family. It was where he learned to sail, a hobby Bruce remained passionate about throughout his life.

After Bob and Marg broke up, teenage Bruce followed his father to Quebec for a short time before returning to Kitchener. He had dropped out of high school in Grade 10 but was able to get a job in the mailroom at Mutual Life and worked his way up to underwriter.

Bruce married and the couple had two children, Eric and Heather.

"Despite the fact he was gay, he had a happy marriage," said Hancock. "He stayed friends with his wife forever."

In the early 1980s, however, Bruce knew he had to make some changes in his life. The couple divorced in 1983. He was newly single, out as a gay man, and he quit the insurance industry.

"He decided the corporate life was no longer for him," said Eric. "He and his partner bought the Magpie Café."

The little New Hamburg café was a popular spot, but it was also an exhausting business to run, with long hours. His business and life partner, Fred Rolleman, was a professional maître d'hôtel and brought an unusual level of service to the small-town eatery at the time. The couple owned the building and lived in the apartment over the café.

"They found it hard to get established," said Hancock. "They were new in town."

The couple sold the building and Rolleman went to work for restaurateur Peter Martin, retiring in 2012. Three weeks later Fred died of a heart attack.

The couple had been together for 29 years, and Bruce was heartbroken. But he would find love again. He married Bill Kirk in 2016 in a ceremony on the beach at the cottage where generations of Lipperts had been part of the close-knit community of cottagers.

Bruce continued working as a server throughout Waterloo Region until the pandemic shut many restaurants down. Two years ago, he was diagnosed with cancer. The man known for his kind heart then had to face yet another tragedy, when his brother David Lippert died this past March.


"David's death was extremely hard on Bruce," said Hancock. "He tried to be optimistic, but the reality of a younger brother dying (was too much)."

Bruce died May 12, 2023, days after he turned 73.

"He was extremely loving, passionate for life," said Hancock. "He was always upbeat."

Bruce also loved music and had eclectic tastes, Eric added: British synth pop, traditional country and Canadian folk.

"I'm going to miss his smile," said Eric.

Lifetimes: Outgoing nature led to a second career in the restaurant business (2023). Available at: https://www.therecord.com/life/2023/05/29/lifetimes-outgoing-nature-led-to-a-second-career-in-the-restaurant-business.html (Accessed: 29 May 2023).