MD Local: The Brucker Bunch

"Transportation chic” is how Lindsey Brucker, MD, describes the decor of the West Torrance home she shares with her spouse, Richard Brucker, MD.

“A school bus here, a trash truck there, little Hot Wheels all over the place,” she says with a grin, gesturing at the automotive design elements artfully distributed by their almost 3-year-old son, Zane. Whiffs of wizardry add enchantment to the Brucker homestead, compliments of 9-year-old Owen, who’s mad about all things Harry Potter.

The Torrance Memorial Physician Network couple wouldn’t want it any other way. Richard is a pediatrician, after all, and Lindsey specializes in adolescent medicine. After caring for young patients all day, the Brucker doctors like nothing better than indulging their boys.

Zane loves playgrounds, so they regularly hit the neighborhood swings, slides and monkey bars. “We’ve been to every playground in the South Bay,” Lindsey says, beaming with pride. Longer day trips take the family to area theme parks and escape rooms.

Board games are a popular pastime. After dinner, Richard might bring out the antique wood-and-felt Rummikub set bequeathed by his great-grandmother, or perhaps Hogwarts Battle, the Harry Potter-themed board game that is Owen’s current favorite.

The six-year age gap adds an element of challenge when trying to please both boys, but somehow it all works out. “Owen loves Zane, and Zane loves Owen,” Lindsey says.

He hasn’t taken up Quidditch yet, but Owen plays AYSO soccer and Richard stays involved as team coach. Having hung up his cleats by third grade, the 40-year-old physician studied YouTube videos to refresh rusty skills and learn new drills. Being a pediatrician with EMT training gives Richard a leg up on ordinary coaches—he can tend to game day bumps and bruises right on the field.

According to his wife, Richard was born to be a pediatrician. His grandmother used to entertain children as a medical clown at cancer charity events, and young Richard would assist with magic tricks. Today he wears crazy fun socks and Disney Crocs. The Ted Lasso-inspired sign hanging in his office reads: “Believe.”

Fatherhood has built on Richard’s natural proclivities. “I’m a far better pediatrician after having kids,” he says, “because I can relate to the families so much more.”

With Owen soon entering his tweens, Lindsey is gaining a new parental perspective on adolescent medicine. A genuine affection for teenagers drives her practice. “They’re a fun group,” she says of a population often labeled difficult. “My office is a judgment-free zone.”

Vital Stats

Hometown: West Torrance

Kids: Owen, 9, and Zane, almost 3

Favorite Board Games: Rummikub, Hogwarts Battle, Cards Against Humanity

Top South Bay Parks: Wilson Park (Torrance), Veterans Park (Redondo Beach), Rocketship Park (South Torrance), Paradise Park (West Torrance), South Park (Hermosa Beach), Polliwog Park (Manhattan Beach), Acacia Park (El Segundo)

All Things Harry Potter: “We’re deep, deep into wizards right now,” Lindsey says. They’ve seen all the Harry Potter movies many times, and J.K. Rowling’s audiobooks are fan favorites during cross-town drives to visit grandparents and cousins. A “wizarding world” experience at the Warner Bros. Studio Tour topped last year’s family vacation in London.

Richard and Lindsey met in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Lindsey originally comes from the Washington, D.C. suburb of Gaithersburg, Maryland. She studied biology at Cornell University and interned at the

National Institutes of Health every summer, and then she spent a gap year conducting HIV research in the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases lab of Anthony Fauci, MD. Before entering the MD program at Tulane University, she earned a master’s degree in pharmacology there.

Richard grew up in Beverly Hills—his polymath father is a former two-term mayor, owner of an ink manufacturing company in Gardena and a prolific inventor. Before starting his MD program at Tulane, Richard studied psychology at Indiana University and spent his summers working as an EMT in Los Angeles.

At Tulane, Richard and Lindsey threw themselves into public service, from tuberculosis clinics for the homeless to medical relief trips to Haiti. A “couple’s match” took them together to the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque for their residencies.

In 2014 the doctors settled in Southern California, where Lindsey began a two-year fellowship in adolescent medicine at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) while Richard started his career in the NICU at Cedars-Sinai. In what he calls a “circle-of-life moment,” Richard—who was born at Cedars—found himself assisting in a high-risk delivery alongside the same OB who had delivered him.

When her CHLA fellowship ended, Lindsey joined Torrance Memorial, recruited by Linda Schack, MD, who runs the Eating Disorders Medical Unit. In addition to caring for hospitalized eating disorder patients, Lindsey sees adolescents and young adults in her outpatient clinic at the Skypark campus.

In 2018 Richard joined his wife at Torrance Memorial Physician Network in the Manhattan Beach location. He later opened the pediatric clinic in El Segundo and also rounds on newborns at the main hospital.

They both love being part of the laid-back South Bay community. “It’s fun running into patients at local places like Handel’s Ice Cream,” Lindsey says.