
He was for three years a trustee of Canisius College where the Business School honored him as Business Executive of the Year in 1987. In 2004 the University of Buffalo presented him with the Community Leadership Medal. The University School of Management named him Businessman of the Year in 1983. He was also a longtime Trustee of the University of Buffalo Foundation and Chairman of its Investment Committee. In 2021 he received The President’s Distinguished Service Award from Buffalo State College. He was also a member of the board of the Burchfield-Penny Art Center. He was appointed a member of the College Council at Buffalo State by Governor Carey in 1980 and served on the Council for 20 years including serving as its Chairman and on the Board of Directors of the Buffalo State College Foundation for 25 years. He was devoted to mentoring and supporting young people and endowed the Kenzie Family Presidential Scholarship Fund at Buffalo State College. Kenzie was active in many ways with local educational institutions.

He left the Army in 1957 and joined Merrill Lynch. Kenzie, then a First Lieutenant, was assigned there to help train the cadre and the German Cadets in the use of American equipment. When the peace treaty was signed in 1955 finally officially ending World War II, the German Army quickly re-established its own version of West Point. An Army veteran and a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1953, he was commissioned in the Armor Branch and served for three years as a tank officer in Germany in the early fifties. He was then the Regional Manager of the Metropolitan area of New York City, Connecticut and New Jersey and finally the Executive Vice President and a member of the Board of Directors. He joined Merrill Lynch in Boston in 1957 and rose through the ranks from being an Account Executive in Boston, Mass to being the Branch Office manager in Akron Ohio and then in Cleveland Ohio. Prior to coming to Buffalo, Kenzie had been Executive Vice President and a Director of Merrill Lynch & Co. An active mentor, investor and philanthropist, both before and after his retirement, he had a lasting impact on many. He loved the city, and he devoted himself to many people and organizations in Buffalo. Originally from Prattsburg, New York, Kenzie came to Buffalo in 1979 as President of the then Buffalo Savings Bank where he served as President and later as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the bank, later named Goldome, until he retired in early 1989.

His beloved wife Langley predeceased him in 2007, as did his brother Allan. He leaves behind his daughters Rachel King (John) of Maryland, Mary Kenzie of Minnesota, grandchildren Connor King (Laura) and Langley Ellmann (Steven), great grandson Thomas Ellmann, sisters Linda Mahley (Robert) and Joyce North, sister-in-law Bette Kenzie, and numerous nieces and nephews. He was devoted to his family and to his friends, and he will be fondly remembered and missed by many. Kenzie Ross Bruce Kenzie, former Chairman of Goldome and a civic leader in the Buffalo community for many years died Novemat age 90 after a brief illness.
