Bruce Layne has
lived the proverbial American Dream. Born in Los Angeles,
California, Bruce moved to Las Vegas, Nevada when he was only ten
years old and the city had only 25,000 people! Bruce attended Bishop
Gorman High School and UNLV graduating with a degree in economics.
He worked several jobs during his high school and college years, but
always made time to play his favorite sport: baseball, at which he
excelled with an amazing batting average of 631.
After graduating, Bruce worked his way up in the insurance business
and with nothing more than hard work, commitment and perseverance,
he managed to create the largest private insurance brokerage in
Nevada. Layne and Associates insured many of the major hotels and
casinos in Las Vegas.
Being a successful businessman was one thing, but Bruce's natural
curiosity led him to try his hand at politics- running for Lt.
Governor in 1998 During the campaign, Bruce ran on the slogan "Our
number one asset is quality education." Not being content to just
talk about changing the education system, Bruce decided to do
something about it, and so founded "Career Day" at the local
schools. One day, while he was visiting the school to speak to the
students on Career Day, he learned the teachers didn't have adequate
funding to procure all the supplies they needed for their
classrooms. Bruce personally pledged each teacher the monies they
needed to make up the difference.
It is because of his reputation for being generous, while at the
same time having strong business ethics, that Bruce was appointed
Vice Chair to the Nevada State Athletic Commission by Governor Bob
Miller.
Bruce was also named a distinguished alumnus and was the first
alumni to
serve on the UNLV Foundation Board. Over the years, Bruce also
served on the Nevada Economic Education Council, as a Board member
of the Nevada Development Authority, the Nevada Dance Theatre and
the Southern Nevada Clean Communities as well as being a member of
the Association of Professional Insurance Agents.
After deciding to retire and selling his insurance company, Bruce
figured figured his days would be filled playing
golf with his sons Chad and Trevor, watching his wife Sherry compete
her Arabian horses and playing with his grandkids Maddie and Garrett
Bruce. But life had other plans for Bruce and on April 26, 1999, he
was diagnosed with Parkinson's. After moping about for a few days,
Bruce decided to do something about it. He wrote a book called "My
Gift" about his life and his battle with Parkinson's. The response
to Bruce's book was so overwhelming, that Bruce knew he needed to do
more.
Bruce jumped into the Parkinson's community and learned all he could
about how he could best help. He spoke to researchers and doctors
who all told him that what they needed was a digital library- a
place where they could share data. Bruce realized that it was only
through collaboration and sharing that all the pieces to the
Parkinson's puzzle could be assembled to find the cure.
But Bruce also realized that patients and caregivers were an
important part of the equation. Bruce decided to create the eLayne
Library as a place for patients, caregivers, doctors and researchers
to all come together in one website to share as much data, both
clinical and experiential as possible.
Bruce invites you to join him in the battle against Parkinson's at
eLayneLibrary.org