Bruce Sargeant McCabe passed away peacefully with family by his side on July 14th 2024 after a long illness. Born June 27, 1937 in Detroit, Michigan, Bruce was the son of Malcolm McCabe and Helen Sargeant McCabe. He spent his childhood in Melrose with his brother Edwin (Ed), graduating from Melrose High School and Brown University.

Bruce was a devoted husband to his wife, Loretta Leone McCabe for 57 years, and father of Douglas, Alicia and Christopher. He was a resident of Scituate, from 1969 until 2020.

Bruce, known for his dry and witty sense of humor, and his amiable and open nature, wrote for the Boston Globe for 32 years. His professional writing career began at The New London Day, after being "discovered" his senior year at Brown University by the Providence Journal, which printed on Page One his story about a particularly glorious spring weekend.  His career continued at the Boston Record-American, the Boston Herald, and The Boston Globe where he served as assistant city editor, feature columnist, movie critic, TV weekly cover story columnist.  His unique ability to disarm and connect with his interview subjects, both well and lesser-known, and his straight-forward and thoughtfully chosen words were hallmarks of his newspaper career.

He enjoyed every minute of the time spent with people from wide-ranging backgrounds, historical figures, luminaries, and celebrities included, but he was especially gratified by the day he spent walking with Martin Luther King, Jr. over the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the site of a bloody civil rights conflict in Selma, Alabama in 1965.  He characterized his time spent covering the civil rights movement as a life changing experience.  Moments spent with Dr. Seuss, Alfred Hitchcock, ice cream with John Travolta at the Ritz Carlton, Robin Williams, and running with Abbie Hoffman who had just stolen a copy of his own book from Lauriat's in Boston, resulted in memorable articles.

His "Role reversal" story in 1974 was notable:  a winsome story about the week he and his wife Loretta exchanged roles, with Bruce managing children and household and Loretta heading to the Boston Globe.

Bruce's innate curiosity about people of all kinds lent itself to his skills as a listener and interviewer.  He was easy to talk to, and was genuinely interested in others' lives and experiences, whether discussing feminism and Madonna with his teenage daughter, interviewing Barbara Streisand, sharing thoughts on poetry or science reports with his grandchildren, or in a cab with Mick Jagger. He was intellectually curious, although the story was that he came home from his first day of school in the 1st grade for lunch and decided he wouldn't go back, that it wasn't for him.

As Film Critic at The Boston Globe from 1976-1982, though he was known to be personally partial to "My Dinner with André" (perhaps infamously), his movie reviews, which can be found on the site Rotten Tomatoes, covered everything from well-known blockbusters like Star Wars, to artistic and independent films like Diva. As a columnist, he wrote engagingly about a wide array of topics from parenthood, local and national figures of interest, and even about gender quandaries in "The Sexes" column in the early 1980's.  He brought humor and a straight-forward take to every subject he covered.

When he wasn't writing stories, Bruce coached Little League, and attended his children's games and band concerts. He took them to Red Sox games and took on school lunch preparation duty while wife Loretta attended law school.

His interest in movies continued when he hosted the TV program McCabe's Choice on the Christian Science Monitor Channel during the early 1990's.  He had an opportunity to share his love of classic films and interviewed major actors such as Rod Steiger and Charlton Heston.

Bruce's life-long pursuit of reading and writing continued following his retirement from The Boston Globe in 2001, and he spent 12 years teaching writing at Massasoit Community College in Brockton.

In later years as a member of the Glastonbury Abbey community in Hingham, he sang in the schola and traveled on Pilgrimages to Scotland, Ireland, Greece, Italy, and Spain together with his wife. He also wrote book reviews for the Abbey newsletter.

He was known as an avid player (and frequent winner) of Trivial Pursuit. For many years the day could not begin for Bruce without coffee and the daily newspaper, he was a reader at heart.  He adored his grandchildren and took a hands-on interest in Sophia, Dylan, Julian, and Avery, spending time reading, taking walks, eating ice cream and playing chess with all. He was a trustee of the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra.

He is survived by his wife Loretta, his brother Edwin McCabe and his wife Karren of Haverhill, Massachusetts, his children Doug McCabe, Christopher McCabe and Alicia Sar and her husband Prasant of Maryland, four grandchildren, and several nieces and nephews. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to

Glastonbury Abbey: https://www.glastonburyabbey.org/index.php/donations/ ; the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra: https://atlanticsymphony.org/thank-you/#; or Brigham and Women's Department of Neurology -Alzheimer's Research:  https://www.brighamandwomens.org/neurology/support-our-work?cmp=nsnee

A wake will be held Sunday, July 21st 4-7 p.m at the McNamara-Sparrell Funeral Home:  160 South Main Street Cohasset, MA 02025 (For Driving Directions), and services Monday July 22nd at 10 a.m at St. Anthony's Parish, 129 S Main St Cohasset 02025. Interment will be at St. Mary's Cemetery, Scituate, MA.

**Funeral Mass will be live streamed on: http://www.youtube.com/c/ChristbytheSea the day of the funeral.