Andrew A. Bruce, born April 15, 1866, in Nunda Drug, Madras, India, of Scottish descent, became dean of the College of Law at the University of North Dakota. Orphaned young, he moved to America at age 15 and graduated from the University of Wisconsin and its law school. Bruce served as secretary to the judges of the Wisconsin Supreme Court and chief clerk of the Wisconsin Central Railway’s law department. A legal reform advocate, he contributed to child labor and sweatshop laws. In 1902, he joined the University of North Dakota. Married to Elizabeth Bacon Pickett, they had two children: Glenn and Edward.
Andrew A. Bruce, dean of the college of law, University of North Dakota, was born April 15, 1866, in the mountain fort of Nunda Drug, in Madras, India, of Scotch parents. His father was General Edward Archibald Bruce, of the British army. His mother, Anne McMaster Bruce, was a daughter of Colonel Robert McMaster, of the British army. Both of his parents died when he was a child and he came alone to America, when fifteen years of age. He worked his own way through college and graduated from the University of Wisconsin and the University of Wisconsin law school. He was appointed secretary to the judges of the supreme court of Wisconsin, in 1890, and two years later he was appointed chief clerk of the law department of the Wisconsin Central Railway. He was attorney for the Illinois State Board of Factory Inspectors, in 1893-5. He practiced law in Chicago very successfully from 1893 to 1898. He took a leading part in the enactment and enforcement of the child labor and sweatshop laws, of both Illinois and Wisconsin. He accepted the professorship of law in the University of Wisconsin, in 1898, resigning in 1902 to accept a similar position in the University of North Dakota, at Grand Forks. Since 1902, he has been dean of the law college, a position he has filled with honor to the institution. He has also been president of the state board of bar examiners since 1905. Dean Bruce is a member of the general counsel of the American Bar Association, of its committee on the classification of the law and of its bureau of comparative law. He was a delegate of the American Bar Association to the Universal Congress of Lawyers and Jurists, at St. Louis, in 1904. He is a member of the American Bar Association, the North Dakota Bar Association, the North Dakota State Historical Society, the Grand Forks Commercial Club, and the Grand Forks Town and Country Club. He is a frequent contributor to the magazines.
Dean Bruce was married to Miss Elizabeth Bacon Pickett, June 29, 1899. They have one daughter, Glenn Bruce, and one son, Edward McMaster Bruce.
Source
C.F. Cooper & Company, History of the Red River Valley, Past And Present: Including an Account of the Counties, Cities, Towns And Villages of the Valley From the Time of Their First Settlement And Formation, volumes 1-2; Grand Forks: Herald printing company, 1909.