24 Dutchess • January / February 2008 The first thing you notice about Bruce Gustin is his positive attitude. And his warm, welcoming smile. The twinkle in his eye. Then you see that he’s surrounded by friends. You notice the handsome face with a hint of a beard, and the strong neck, as big around as some people’s thigh. And, oh yeah, he’s sitting in a pretty spiffy chair, with wheels. Bruce Gustin is paralyzed from the neck down. I first heard about Bruce from his friend Ray Eaton, who wanted me to meet Bruce, and write about him, because he was the “greatest guy in the world.” That sounded like an interesting idea, so after a couple of deep breaths, I called him up. A booming voice answered, and it turned out Ray was close to being correct; and, like most of the world’s greatest people, Bruce doesn’t like to brag. He’s been a quadriplegic for 35 years, with limited use of his upper arms, but no use of his hands or legs. During those “13,000 days” (his count), Bruce has run a construction company, a snowplowing service, invented new wheelchairs, a stretching device and a new game called Millennium Chess. Over the course of a few weeks, I can’t say that I got to know Bruce, but I was certainly touched by his" joie de vivre". Naturally, he didn’t want to talk about “the accident.” Only about his accomplishments. So we met at the Beekman Library, where the chess club is in residence. Millennium Chess is the game Bruce invented, and patented, to improve the skills of the average to excellent chess player. It looks like two chess boards glued together, but on second glance, it’s much more. By expanding the size of the battlefield and increasing the number of pieces, a chess player’s mind is forced to accept a greater strategic load. This subconsciously builds one’s “chess muscles.” Bruce uses the example of an on-deck batter swinging a weighted bat (or two bats) so that when he steps up to the plate the real bat swings easily. Bruce came up with the idea of Millennium Chess while playing chess with his friends, out of a desire to make the game more interesting. After playing Millennium Chess for a while, he refined the rules – the first of the two kings can be captured without placing him in check, for example – until the new game became a real challenge. All around the room at the Beekman Library, young chess aficionados were practicing Millennium Chess as well as classic chess. I sat down to play my first game of Millennium Chess. Bruce was towering across from me in his soupedup wheelchair (more on this later). He explained to my wife, Sue, where to move his pieces (“Knight to A14 … That’s the horse.”). Now, I know how to play chess like I know how to play football – quarterback throws, receiver catches. Luckily, Millennium Chess is complicated enough that it took me quite a while to make a fool of myself. Why worry about losing a queen when you’ve got a spare? In the eight years since Bruce first came up with the game, he has sold (Bruce prefers the word “distributed”) several thousand sets, priced from $49.95 for a roll-up vinyl board with its 60 pieces to $499 for a super parquet affair. They’re available on his Web site, www.vipchess. com, or at the Dutchess County Fair in the Arts and Crafts building, where Bruce demonstrates the game. Bruce has lots of friends. Back in 1999, Bruce brought his game onto the Sally Jessy Raphael TV show. Eddie Murphy helped Bruce found his Millennium Chess manufacturing company after he fell in love with the game. Later, I got to meet some more of Bruce’s friends at his house in Poughquag, where he was born and still lives with his dad, a retired corrections officer (Sing-Sing and Green Haven). Ed Van Anden is a wiry Lynyrd Skynyrd fan, and Bruce’s almost constant companion. He lives downstairs, and The Right Moves A Poughquag man transforms his natural talents into a winning strategy for chess – and for life. January / February 2008 • Dutchess 25 Continued on following page 26 Dutchess • January / February 2008 Continued on page 28 Bruce teaches the author how to play Millennium Chess. supposed to be talking,” I prodded. So later I asked them what they were “talking about.” “Girls,” said Bruce’s dad, laughing. And then he added, “Bruce is quite a guy.” It was way back in 1971 when a car skidded on an icy road. Seventeen-year-old Bruce Gustin was in the passenger seat. “A few days earlier, I dreamed I was in a bed with curving, shiny steel bars all around me,” he mused, finally offering to helped rescue Bruce from a 1990 fire that burned down the original family home (Bruce served as general contractor when it was rebuilt on the same foundation). Obviously, Bruce needs quite a bit of assistance, but he has perfected a regimen that he claims is responsible for his remarkable good health after 35 years of immobility. Six times a day, Ed helps Bruce into a contraption they call the “stretcher,” fashioned from a carpenter’s belt, roofing kneepads, a ratchet tie-down and suspenders, powered by a 500-pound electric winch. Bruce is lifted up for a couple of minutes during each session, with the belt strapped just under his shoulders, stretching his spine and allowing blood to flow to the lower body. Ed also helps Bruce with his diet, low in sugar, high in protein and fiber, and plenty of fluids. And he tends the garden, growing tomatoes, zucchini, even watermelons. Bruce has designed several wheelchairs, each one getting him higher and higher off the ground, because Bruce thinks it’s “dehumanizing” to constantly be looked down on. The latest version is a leather Honda Acura car seat, electric and fully adjustable, grafted onto a Quickie 486 power frame wheelchair. Bruce asked me not to photograph him in the stretcher – “too macabre,” he said, but I insisted on getting a shot of him in the wheelchair talking to someone at “eye level.” His dad volunteered. At first they were side by side. “You’re 28 Dutchess • January / February 2008 Continued from page 26 The RighT Moves Continued on page 30 Ed Van Anden (left) handles the “stretcher” as Bruce looks on. 30 Dutchess • January / February 2008 reminisce a bit. “Then when I woke up in the hospital, those same bars were at the foot of my bed.” Since that night, he’s never looked back, only ahead to the future. During his construction and snowplowing days – Bruce ran the office and lined up the customers while his friends wielded the hammers and drove the trucks – his whole crew would go out for shrimp Parmesan dinners. Bruce still loves seafood, and often dines at his favorite restaurant, Muscoot North in Hopewell Junction. He’s working on a computerized version of Millennium Chess. Bruce hopes to write a book about saving the lives of people like himself, through a proper diet, stretching, taking care of the skin and lungs, and mental health. Bruce Gustin welcomes each new day. “Keep a positive attitude,” he says, “find yourself a niche, and move forward.” “Keep a positive attitude,” he says, “find yourself a niche, and move forward.” This article originally appeared in the January/February 2008 issue of Dutchess magazine and is reprinted here with permission from Taconic Press. Story and photos are by by Mark Adams the moves, pictured, opposite page: Bruce with one of his two dogs, a beagle-Jack Russell mix named Lillian; this page: Bruce Gustin’s Millennium Chess. Thank You to Miss Kate! We he staff of Millennium Chess THANK YOU for making thisall possible and the help you provided ustoo set up these pages from the Magazine "Dutchess"...... Great Job Well Done THANK YOU ! |
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