Todd Garrett’s eulogy at the memorial service for Bruce at St. James of the Valley Catholic Church in Wyoming, Ohio, on 14 August 1999:

I work at Procter & Gamble, and came to know Bruce Perry because his wife Lisa is one of my wife Diane’s best friends. In fact, when Lisa and Bruce came to our wedding, he volunteered to take photographs of this most important event our our lives, which he did.

Diane and I have shared the joy of knowing the Perrys, including their three sons, Drew, Scotty and Eric. In fact, we invited their six-year-old son Drew to join us for a long July 4 weekend in New York City about a month ago. That was truly a wonderful experience for Drew, Diane and me.

Words cannot describe the feelings of sorrow and pain that come with the loss of Bruce. People live, and leave, their own legacy in this world. For me, Bruce’s legacy was being an individual who truly lived his life by the Golden Rule: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

Although Bruce was always busy, as we all are, he was never too busy to care about people. He truly put the interests and concerns of others before himself. He lived these values and gifted them to everyone who knew him, most significantly his family.

For example, during our weekend in New York, Drew’s first concern and interest about his experiences there related to his younger brother, Scotty, not himself. When it came time to look for gifts and souvenirs, it was remarkable to me that Drew always thought first about what Scotty would like to have and treasure. I could see then, and now, how much Drew is like his dad:  certainly very smart, always thinking, and thoughtfully caring about the people around him. If only we could all give that gift to our children.

I truly believe that Bruce’s value system and personal perspective were all about what he could do to help other people, by being extraordinarily nice, thoughtful, patient, and truly caring. He wanted to do what he could, personally, to make other people’s lives happier and better.

Frankly, I have never known or seen anyone who exemplified this character as well as Bruce Perry. I have also never known or heard of anyone who ever had anything bad to say about Bruce, nor did I ever hear him say anything ill of anyone else. What a truly remarkable person!