Remembering Bruce: Portland-based early leader of LCSNW passes away

Photo: Bruce Strade (right) and Salah Ansary at LCSNW’s 2024 Faith Leaders breakfast in Portland.

Friends and former colleagues are mourning the loss of a long-time leader in the Lutheran Community Services Northwest family.

Bruce Strade, 85, died on Dec. 2. He was a key figure in our Oregon operations in the 1980s and ‘90s. He later had a large role in the 2001 merger that brought three states under the LCSNW umbrella. He’s also remembered for many charitable ventures in the Portland area after retiring from LCSNW in 2004.

Salah Ansary, LCSNW’s Senior Director of Advocacy & Government Affairs, said Bruce’s big heart and deep desire to reunite separated refugee families continued until the end of his life.

“A few weeks before Bruce passed away, he called to tell me about an Afghan family (single mother with 3 children), whom he had helped since 2022,” Salah said. “The husband’s case was scheduled for an interview in Islamabad. This news made Bruce so happy!”

Salah fondly recalls a trip that he and Bruce took to Russia and Ukraine in 1999. They observed the processing of refugees from Eastern Europe and visited with refugees bound for the Northwest.

“Bruce was a compassionate individual; he cared for the needy and vulnerable,” Salah said.

Ordained as a Lutheran pastor in 1966, Bruce settled his young family in Portland – where he’d met his wife, Kathy – in the 1970s, according to his published obituary. He joined Lutheran Family Service of Oregon as a part-time family therapist while also serving as Dean of Students at Concordia College.

In 1980, Bruce was named Director of the Washington County office of Lutheran Family Service of Oregon and Southwest Washington. In 1994, he was elevated to LFS Executive Director. Under his leadership, LFS was recognized as the largest Lutheran refugee resettlement agency in the U.S.

He remained in that position until 2001, when the two organizations representing the three-state region came together. Lutheran Family Service of Oregon and Southwest Washington merged with Lutheran Social Services of Washington and Idaho. Roberta Nestaas, who led LSSWI at the time, was named CEO/President of the merged organization; Bruce was named Chief Operating Officer.

He also enjoyed using an alternate title: Chief Officer of Organizational Delight.

“His sense of humor was legendary,” said Boots Winterstein, who served under Bruce when she was Director of the North Puget Sound Area of the newly merged LCSNW.

The merger was tricky, Boots recalled – not just the legal part, “but also merging the quite different cultures of the two agencies.” She credits Bruce and Roberta for working diligently to do that.

Roberta Nestaas and Bruce Strade were the first executives at the newly merged LCSNW in 2001.

Nearly 25 years later, CEO David Duea says LCSNW is in a strong position to serve Northwest communities, thanks in part to the groundwork laid by those early leaders.

“Many of us are saddened by the loss of Bruce in 2025 and Roberta in 2024, but I was blessed by their guidance and deep history with the agency,” David said. “I will never take for granted the seeds they planted for LCSNW’s mission of Health, Justice, and Hope.”

A memorial service for Bruce Strade is set for Jan. 10 at 11am at Zion Lutheran Church in Portland.