Praised Coach to Prominent author: Stephen L. Bruneau is a Weston Star
The Weston Star
By Sunny Richardson and Stephen L. Bruneau
Weston High school graduate did not start out to build a nationally known financial services firm or become an author of suspense thrillers. As a psychology undergrad at Tufts University, Bruneau thought he wanted to be a shrink.
While on an internship at Mattapan State Hospital he was assigned to administer IQ tests to incoming patients, a role that also called for him to score the tests and thereby know all of the answers.
During the summer of his junior year, he attended a wedding: "Pretty much Table 19', if you've seen the movie," Bruneau said. A table-mate asked Bruneau to meet with his boss and take some recruiting tests, one of which was the same IQ test he was already familiar with from his internship. "Let's just say I scored a lot higher than my actual IQ."
Shortly after the meeting, the new boss said 'Shave the beard, get a haircut, and I'll start you at $700/month plus commission. Bruneau never looked back. After graduating from Tufts in 1975 with a double degree, he spent seven years with that first firm and three years at another, before starting Boston 128 Companies, Inc. in the Ames Schoolhouse in Dedham Square in 1985.
Two years later the firm had fifty people and occupied the entire 30th floor of the Federal Reserve Bank building in Boston. Along the way, Bruneau has received numerous industry and professional awards, including forty-three consecutive years of Million Dollar Round Table qualification, many years of Top of the Table recognition, Industry Hall of Fame awards, and the prestigious Lester A. Rosen Humanitarian Award. All of these accolades for a man molded by his beginnings in Weston.
In the community, Bruneau has served on the Board of Directors of the Waltham Boys and Girls, chaired the Weston Boosters Reunion Fund, a 501(c)3 non-profit established by the High School Class of 1971. In the last three years he has facilitated grants of $53,000 to Lovelane Therapeutic back Riding, $20,000 to The Gifford School of Weston, and currently, in conjunction with the class's 50th reunion in 2021 has pledged to donate a minimum of $25,000 to build an animal barn at Land's Sake Farm, the local Weston farm any food-bank. Bruneau also estimates he has coached around thirty-five youth baseball teams over a thirty year period, and in 1974-76 was an assistant football coach at WHS. A prominent fixture in the local sports community, Bruneau is giving back by shaping the lives of local youth. Stephen Bruneau's foray into writing began late in life, approximately three years ago at the age of sixty-four. "I love the escapism of it," he says. "My primary goal is to be a good storyteller. If I can incorporate some nuances that prompt the reader to think about contemporary issues, that's a bonus. Although I've received some great feedback, I look at it as a hobby."
Bruneau elected to go the self-published route as a matter of time and expediency. His first attempt, The MIT Murders (2019), received the Editor's Choice Award and the Rising Star Award, indicative of the top one percent of submitted manuscripts in a particular genre at his publisher.
His most recent release, The SCOTUS Affair (2020), a political thriller, was also selected for the Editor's Choice Award. There are three more Dimase Augustin thrillers (Bruneau's ongoing protagonist currently 'in the can'. Steve is not certain when they will be released. "I recently picked up an agent and he put the squash on any more self-publishing for the time being. One way or another, I hope to continue to get my work out there. As long as I can continue to think of interesting plot-lines, I will continue to write."