Claudia Anne Touhey Bruno, age 78, died March 31 surrounded by her family at Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch, following a courageous battle with cancer. From her birth to her death, she nourished people around her with love, faith and service to her community.
She was born at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Brighton (Boston), Massachusetts to Joseph S. and Louise B. (DiSchino) Touhey and was the elder of two children. As a youth, Claudia cherished family summer vacations in Scituate, Massachusetts. After graduating from high school at the Academy of the Assumption in Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts she attended Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana. In 1961, fate drew Claudia to a college spaghetti dinner where she met Anthony T. Bruno in South Bend, Indiana.
Upon graduation in 1962, she worked as a bacteriologist for the Massachusetts Diagnostic Labs, Jamaica Plains, Massachusetts. Claudia and Anthony married Sept. 28, 1963 in Wellesley, Massachusetts and eventually settled in Little Silver, where she and Anthony raised their family.
Claudia shared her love through dedicated service to civic organizations like the Little Silver Volunteer Emergency Medical Service and Board of Health, and served proudly as an associate member of the Voluntas Dei Institute, as well as an extraordinary minister of the Holy Eucharist, sacristan, religious education teacher, and other roles at the Catholic faith community of St. Joan of Arc on Fort Monmouth. In 2014 the Joslin Diabetes Center honored Claudia for living courageously with Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes for 50 years.
Left to honor Claudia and remember her love in addition to her husband Anthony are Claudia’s two children, Bernadette (Edward) Kokolus, and Christopher (Dawn) Bruno; four grandchildren Taylor, Christopher, Breanna and Shane; brother Edward Touhey of Meredith, New Hampshire; brother-in-law Thomas (Joanne) Bruno of Little Silver; and several nieces, nephews, grand-nieces, grand-nephews, and adoring friends.
Claudia was preceded in death by her parents and beloved son Anthony T.J. Bruno.
The family greeted friends April 7 at Thompson Memorial Home in Red Bank. A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated April 8 at the Church of the Nativity, Fair Haven. Burial followed at Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Middletown.
In lieu of flowers, memorials can be made to the T.J. Bruno Memorial Scholarship for Students with Disabilities, c/o Brookdale Community College Foundation, 765 Newman Springs Road, Lincroft, NJ 07738-9988 or to Joslin Diabetes Center, 1 Joslin Place, Boston, MA 02215 or joslin.org.
