Terry Bruce Young Alumni Award Winner Video

Franklin Terry T. Bruce
97 BA Political Science
Hutchinson, Kansas

Terry Bruce, Pretty Prairie, graduated from FHSU in 1997 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science. He earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Kansas. He is an attorney at Forker, Suter and Rose LLC, Hutchinson, and is a Kansas state senator serving on the Judiciary, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Utilities committees. He is vice chair of the Legislative Post Audit Committee and is on the Judicial Council Subcommittee on End of Life Decisions.

He was also communications director for the Kansas House majority leader for a legislative term. Before that, he spent the first three years of his legal career, from August 2000 to December 2003, as an assistant Reno County district attorney. He has been in private law practice since June 2004.

While at FHSU, he was involved in the Student Government Association, serving as a student senator and SGA president and vice president. He was secretary general of the FHSU United Nations, was a member of Pi Sigma Alpha, the political science honorary society, and Mortar Board, a national senior honor society.

I have had the opportunity to work with Terry Bruce in the Kansas Senate for the last five years, writes Kansas Sen. Mark Taddiken 72. During that time, I have seen Sen. Bruce work diligently on numerous legislative initiatives that have statewide impact. Particularly, while acting as chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee and as a member of the Senate Utilities Committee, I have seen Sen. Bruce take an interest in rural Kansas and renewable resources.

Taddiken cites especially the 2009 legislative session and Bruces sponsorship and guidance of Senate Bill 108, which helped the wind power industry in Kansas, providing access by wind equipment manufacturers to Kansas government bonds.

As a Fort Hays State University alum myself, said Taddiken, it is obvious to me that Sen. Bruce has applied the leadership skills and entrepreneurial spirit instilled in him by his alma mater.

As a legislator, he has been recognized with the Ethanol Producers Senator of the Year award and the Pro-Jobs Legislator Award from the Kansas Chamber of Commerce and Industry. In the 2007 Legislature, he authored the Kansas Renewable Fuel Standards legislation that created incentives for gas stations to offer renewable fuel blends, such as ethanol and bio-diesel, in order to make them more available to the public and to encourage rural economic development.

He is a member of the FHSU Alumni Association, Cause for Paws (a volunteer, non-profit organization to raise funds for the care of stray cats and dogs), the Reno County Chamber of Commerce, the Reno County Young Professionals, the Kansas Bar Association and the Reno County Bar Association.

He is also a Red Cross volunteer and spent three weeks in disaster recovery efforts in Texas and Louisiana after hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.

He is married to Sarah and they have two sons, Garrett 14, and Isaac 14 months.