Warren Bruce Kinsey

The staff of Heishman Funeral Home/Valley Funeral Service sends condolences to the family of Warren Bruce Kinsey. Warren Bruce Kinsey, 84, of Maurertown, passed away February 14 at Winchester Hospital, the result of injuries from a fall. The son of the late Warren Kinsey and Elizabeth Trost Kinsey, Bruce was born in Peoria, Illinois, on December 31, 1940. A diplomat, writer, marketer, and carpenter, his life took many twists and turns. In 1954, Bruce’s family moved to Decatur, Illinois, where his father was manager of the Caterpillar Equipment plant there. After graduating from Eisenhower High School, he continued his education at Northwestern University, transferring to the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in his sophomore year. He graduated in 1962, joined the Foreign Service, and was posted to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), followed by two years in Stuttgart, Germany. Early in 1967, Bruce was recruited by Everet Bumgardner (a Shenandoah County native) to be in the first class at the Vietnam Training Center. There recruits from the State Department, military, and Agency for International Development spent a year in intense Vietnamese language and culture study. The graduates of the center were sent to Vietnam under the pacification program known as Civil Operations and Rural Development Support (CORDS). Bruce spent two years in Long An province working with Vietnamese people, providing support for health, infrastructure and education needs and helping them resist incursion attempts by the Viet Cong. In 1970, he received the American Foreign Service Association’s Averell Harriman Award for “courage, creativity and disciplined dissent.” USAID also honored him with its meritorious service award. After returning from Vietnam, he took leave from the State Department to obtain a Master of Business Administration from the University of Virginia. Following graduation, he left the State Department and joined Cresap, McCormick, and Paget, a management consultant firm. Subsequently, Bruce held writing/marketing positions at the Congressional Quarterly, Printing Industries of America, and United Communications Group, among others. In 2001 he retired to Shenandoah County to an 1898 farmhouse on 25 acres where he never tired of the mountain and pond views. It was there that he turned to his love of woodworking and, for socializing’s sake, founded a men’s monthly lunch group called the ROMEOs (Retired Old Men Eating Out). The Maurertown farm became a frequent unofficial assembly point for veterans of the Vietnam pacification program, informally dubbed “The Good Guys.” At the time of his death, Bruce was writing a detailed history and analysis of the pacification efforts. He is survived by his wife Joan Anderson; sons Geoff Kinsey (Kathlynn), Bothell WA, and Scott Graves (Hazel), Salt Lake City, and daughter, Jacqueline Norris (Michael), Castle Rock, CO, eight grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren, He was predeceased by his son Matthew and his sister Betsy Alton. A memorial gathering will be held at St. Paul's Heritage Center, 106 South High Street, Edinburg on Sunday, March 9, at 1 pm. For details on parking and accessibility, please see below. A second event will be held in Washington DC in the spring. In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to the Humane Society of Shenandoah County, P.O. Box 173, Woodstock, Virginia 22664. In Bruce’s honor, you might read a book about or written by Winston Churchill or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Warren Bruce Kinsey

December 31, 1940 - February 14, 2025