Obituary

Bruce Salzman, a talented entrepreneur, optimist, and devoted husband and father, died January 10, at age 71, at his home in Santee.  He is survived by his wife of 43 years, Joanne, his sons Larry and Brian, his granddaughter Mylene, and his brothers Gregg and Scott.

Born in Brooklyn, he grew up in the idyllic Lake Hiawatha suburb of New Jersey in the 1950s and 60s, where he loved to bowl and play pinball and embarked on what he often described as a wild youth.   He got an early start in business selling plastics to stores in New York City and in the dry cleaning business with his father.  He married his wife Joanne and soon had two sons.

His young bride and family moved with him to California in 1975 to start a new life, where he launched a nearly 30 year career in the automotive business.   He proved an exceptional salesman and manager, rising from used car salesman to become a celebrated sales and general manager of several San Diego car dealerships.  He loved training others and passing along his skills.  He struck out on his own in 1986 to buy Hilltop Tire Center in La Mesa, which became the “family business.”   He grew it to three stores and more than 60 employees—his wife, sons, in-laws, and other extended family worked at the business over the years. His father-in-law, Larry Larkin, was an integral part of the business.   As the family prospered, Bruce and Joanne traveled around the world and particularly loved island locations.   Bruce served on the La Mesa Chamber of Commerce for many years and enjoyed being a part of the community.

He felt betrayed when the City of La Mesa took his Hilltop Tire Center’s largest store by eminent domain to make way for Costco.  An ensuing legal battle over the project lasted for years, causing the end of the business and wiping out the family’s nest-egg on the cusp of a planned early retirement.  Undefeated, he poured his characteristically inexhaustible energy into a new business with his wife and son Larry.  The business succeeded beyond their hopes within a few years, becoming one of the three largest online retailers of prepaid telecom in the United States, returning the family to financial security.  Bruce and Joanne dreamed of a home near the beach and built it in Carlsbad in 2008 upon their retirement.  They soon sold the house, however, because they missed being nearer to Joanne's family and to their granddaughter Mylene, who had become their greatest source of joy in recent years.  They created a home at Sky Ranch in Santee and Bruce often remarked that the friendships he developed with neighbors there made it the best place he lived during his adult life.  He liked to drive Jaguars and kept a game room with a pool table, pinball, and a jukebox that reminded him of his youth.

He will be remembered as a nurturing, kind, and productive man.  He was tremendously committed to his family and he admired independence and ambition in others.  People often remarked that he had a good sense of joy and humor.  He boasted often during his life that he would live to 100 because many in his family lived well into their 80s and 90s, but he was diagnosed with a lung disease shortly after retirement and it was not to be.  At a New Years’ Eve dinner just before his death he expressed disappointment that he would not live as long as he hoped, but that he felt blessed by all he had achieved and the love he felt from and for his friends and his family.