Brian K Bruns

Services for Brian K. Bruns, 47, Minden, Nev., will be at 2 p.m. Friday at Trinity Lutheran Church in Lawrence. Burial with military honors will follow in Memorial Park Cemetery.Mr. Bruns died Wednesday, April 20, 2005, north of Chico, Calif., in a plane crash.He was born Dec. 20, 1957, in Ellsworth, the son of Kenneth I. “Bud” and Erma Sexton Bruns. He moved to Lawrence in 1959 and graduated from Lawrence High School in 1975. He received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Kansas University in 1985. He also attended Aviation Officer Candidate School in Pensacola, Fla.Mr. Bruns served in the U.S. Navy as a flight engineer and was commissioned as an ensign Aug. 19, 1988. He received his pilot’s wings in February 1990. He was a Gulf War veteran and was stationed at Moffet Naval Air Station in northern California. He was most recently with a VP Squadron based at Point Mugu in southern California. He had attained the rank of lieutenant commander. He briefly flew as a commercial airline pilot and later joined Aero Union Corporation to fight wildfires for the U.S. Forest Service.Survivors include his parents, Lawrence; three brothers, Randy Engle, Kansas City, Mo., Rusty, Lawrence, and Dean, McPherson; and a sister, Sharon Rose, Lawrence, and several nieces and nephews.The family will receive friends from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday at Rumsey-Yost Funeral Home. The family suggests memorials to the church, 1245 N.H., Lawrence 66044 or Wildland Firefighter Foundation, sent in care of the funeral home.Online condolences may be sent at www.rumsey-yost.com.