Bruce was born in Saint Louis, Missouri, and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Brooklyn, and Washington, D.C.
He then studied at George Washington University, 1919, and at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1920–1924, from which he received his bachelor's degree in electrical communication.
In 1924 he joined the Western Electric Company, and in 1925 became a research engineer at Bell Telephone Laboratories, where he helped develop short-wave radio receivers and field strength measuring equipment, and designed directional antennas for short-wave radio communication, including his celebrated rhombic antenna (1931).
He co-authored a landmark book with fellow sailor and AYRS member, Henry (Harry) A. Morss Jr., Design for Fast Sailing which was finished months before his death, being published posthumously in 1976.
The concept of an inclined leeboard has been recorded in a patent by M. and T. A. McIntyre on Oct. 19, 1920, however it was Bruce's explanation through the AYRS that brought it into the sailing public's perception.