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Note: https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/XVF4-QJ3
."Iowa, Births and Christenings, 1830-1950," John Ricker Bruggeman, 1912
Name: John Ricker Bruggeman
Birthplace: Sioux City, Woodbury, Iowa
Father's Name: Henry Joseph Bruggeman
Mother's Name: Frances Marion
Indexing Project (Batch) Number: I10142-0
System Origin: Iowa-EASy
Source Film Number: 1451575
Reference Number: p 10
Source Citation
"Iowa, Births and Christenings, 1830-1950," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/XVF4-QJ3 : accessed 12 May 2012), John Ricker Bruggeman, 1912.
https://www.familysearch.org
John Ricker Bruggeman
Iowa, Births and Christenings, 1830-1950
birth: 28 Feb 1912 Sioux City, Woodbury, Iowa residence: Woodbury, Iowa, United States
parents: Henry Joseph Bruggeman, Frances Marion http://pilot.familysearch.org/
Name: John R Bruggeman
Residence: , Denver, Colorado
Estimated birth year: 1913
Age in years: 7
Birthplace: Iowa
Relationship to head-of-household: Son
Gender: Male
Race or color (on document): White
Marital status: Single
Father's birthplace:
Mother's birthplace:
Film number: 1820162
Digital GS number: 4294432
Image number: 00231
Sheet number: 2
Collection: United States Census, 1920
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/X7WB-7Y4
."United States Census, 1930," John R Bruggeman in household of Henry J Bruggeman, Denver, Denver, Colorado
Name: John R Bruggeman
Event: Census
Event Date: 1930
Event Place: Denver, Denver, Colorado
Gender: Male
Age: 17
Marital Status: Single
Race: White
Birthplace: Iowa
Estimated Birth Year: 1913
Relationship to Head of Household: Son
Father's Birthplace: Iowa
Mother's Birthplace: Iowa
Enumeration District Number: 0106
Family Number: 380
Sheet Number and Letter: 21B
Line Number: 67
NARA Publication: T626, roll 237
Film Number: 2339972
Digital Folder Number: 4532383
Image Number: 00391
Parent Henry J Bruggeman M 53
Parent Frances M Bruggeman F 46
John R Bruggeman M 17 Francis K Bruggeman M 12 Helen P Ricker F 75 Source Citation
"United States Census, 1930," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/X7WB-7Y4 : accessed 12 May 2012), John R Bruggeman in household of Henry J Bruggeman, Denver, Denver, Colorado.
Hi Margaret,
I promise I won't sustain the frantic pace I've put you through today. Just wanted to let you know CMB (i.e., Courtney Marie Bruggeman - my Grand-daughter) was positively ecstatic when she read all you e-mails to me. She will send you a note as soon as she gets homework done. (House rules).
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History 1 - as remembered (hopefully accurately) by JJB
JBR the mathematician
JRB was born in Sioux City, Iowa, 4/28/1912, (some confusion in records might have been 1911). His SSDI was 522-38-2792 if that helps you in getting other info. He moved to Denver by the time he entered grade shool. I have no idea why the family moved from Iowa but that is part of CMBs school assignment: document reasons for migration pattern.
He started grade school public school then moved to the Parochial school system mainly at Saint Philomena's.
He attended high school at Cathedral High. He met Monsignor Richard Heister there and their friendship grew over the years. (more later). He graduated in 1928 - great timing. He always told of having lined up a job as translator for Bank of America but the offer fell through when the depression hit. As a consequence, he decided to attend Regis College where he got his bachelor degree in math. Following that he began a long time association with Univ of Colorado working on his MS and Phd mainly in their night school. His day job was with the Bureau of Reclamation as a mathematician. At first he worked at the Old Customs House (the big white building across the street from Holy Ghost chuch. Later they moved to other downtown office and finally to the Federal Center. One of his claims to fame was programing very early computers to solve complex differential equations. All the dams, for example Hover Dam was honey combed with sensors. People had full time jobs collecting readings from the sensors and sending them to the Bureau of Rec in Denver to analyze. Numbers proved overwhelming to the point that 12-18 years after the dam washed out, the analysts would get to the data (taken 18-20 yrs earlier) and learn things weren't looking good. JRB figured out a way to put the data into computers so the government would learn only 4-6 years after the catastrophe something was amiss. Bottom line as youngster, I had a hard time appreciating why the President of the US (Truman) would send him a congradulator letter for a system that was still 4-6 years too late to save anything. Of course, as I grew wiser I understood! (tee hee)
In parallel with the Bureau of Rec, he spent several nights aweek involved with UC. He got his degree(s) not sure he completed the Phd though. But did become instructor in the math dept. His Phd advisor was Doc Brotz(sp) who was a truely supported mentor.
He loved foreign language translating. He accumulated an extensive library of math books in German and French. He would translate these books for various scholarly journals. I'm not sure how much if any he made doing the translations but the whole time I lived at home (minus the nights he taught) he would work from the time he got home until after midnight in his 'study' (a white washed area of the basement with wall to wall bookcases). This love of language coupled led him to join the Turnverine(sp) a German Social Club where every Thursday the kids did gymnastics (I hated) while the old men drank beer and sang songs in German. Of course, when the war came anything German was verbotan. He quit the club and I was told to never say a word about the German Math Books in the celler.
During the 2nd WW JRB tried to get a commission in Army. Bureau of Rec nixed the idea. Said his work at the Bur was vital to the war effort. So as an alternative he signed up to train Officer Candidates (like ROTC) at the Univ. This was done at the Boulder campus. So three of four nights a week, after diner, my mother (Irene) and I (2nd / 3rd gradish) piled into our Ford Model A and headed to Bolder. JRB would drop mom and I at the theater and he would go on to teach at UC. After class he'd swing back by the theater, pick us up and head home. (Boy did I develop a taste for Boston Blackie and Charlie Chan movies. I think I was the only kid in school who got to go to the movies during the week.)
(I'll stay with his job history for now and deal with other relationships later)
Next thing I knew he was working for Martin Marietta after they came to Denver. No idea why he left the B of R after all those years. However, somewhere along the line he began to drink heavily, very heavily! In fact Martin hired a man to meet my dad after work and make sure he didn't drink until the next morning. I guess Martin felt he had the mips and knowledge they required if they could keep him sober. Those same mips enabled him to outwit his guardian and everytime I saw him (albeit admittedly infrequently) he was deep in his cups, as the British say.
Next thing I knew he was off to Brigham City Utah to work for Thiokol Chemical Company. I hoped the Mormons would keep him dry. Alas .... But I don't want to give the impression that he wasn't highly valued by companies. His brains and prestige were such that top companies in the missle and rocket industries kept hiring him and apparently richly rewarded him for his work product.
As a result of CMB's project, I learned that at some point he was off to Seattle to work for Boeing Aircraft. No idea of how long at either Thiokol or Boeing. Final thing I found out, again as a result of CMB's project, he died in Orange CA Sep 4, 1987
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I found it interesting that the math genes must have been strong. Both myself and my son JJB II went on to get MS in math. Although both of us moved into marketing and consulting. Not sure if Rudy's masters is in math but seems to follow the advanced education bent of our father.
Well I've taken far more of your time to reminisce than I deserve. I'll save the next installment for later. Of course, feel free to say "Enough already!"
Since turnabout is fair play, feel free to do a core dump on me. Would love to hear about my siblings.
Regards,
JJB Subject:
Family History 1 Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2001 17:18:13 -0400 From: "John Bruggeman" <jjbrug@@optonline.net> To: "Margaret A. Saville" <marges@@qwest.net> California Death Records
BRUGGEMAN JOHN RICKER 04/27/1912 RICKER M COLORADO ORANGE 09/04/1987 522-38-2792 75 yrs
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