ROBERT J. BRUNGRABER (20 December 1929 - 27 June 2022)

Robert J. Brungraber, Professor Emeritus of Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, died peacefully in his home at Meadow Lakes in Hightstown, New Jersey on Monday, 27 June 2022 at age 92. He was predeceased in 2018 by his wife of nearly 67 years, the former Ruth Ann Rupp.

Brungraber was born and raised in Birmingham, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit.  There he graduated from Baldwin High School in 1947.  In 1951, in the space of one week, he and Ruth Ann graduated from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, married in her hometown of Toledo, Ohio, and flew to Casablanca, Morocco to begin their life together.  Nine months later their son, Robert Lyman, was born in Casablanca.

After two years engaged as a civil engineer in the construction of an airbase, Brungraber returned to the United States.  He obtained a masters degree in civil engineering from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.  From there he and his family moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he was employed in bridge design by the Alcoa Aluminum Corporation.  In 1963, Brungraber earned a PhD from Carnegie Institute of Technology, now Carnegie Mellon University. He taught civil engineering at Princeton University (1962-1966), Union College in Schenectady, New York (1966-68) and Bucknell University (1968-1992), where he was a full professor, conducted research, and served as a department chair.

In addition to his career in teaching, Brungraber was founder of Slip-Test, Incorporated, based upon his development and patenting of a portable friction-measuring device. He continued to own and operate the company until its sale.

Upon graduation from the University of Michigan, Brungraber was inducted into Tau Beta Pi, the engineering honor society.  He was also a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, a Fellow of the American Society for Testing and Materials and a founding member of the National Institute of Building Standards.  He was a member of the Moles, a fraternal organization for those engaged in the heavy construction industry, the Nassau Club in Princeton, New Jersey and the Cosmos Club in Washington, DC.  He and his late wife were members of the Spring Lake Golf Club, in Spring Lake, New Jersey, where their enthusiasm (and prowess) as bridge players was frequently on display.

The Brungrabers were passionate explorers and returned multiple times to Europe, Asia and the Middle East following their two-year sojourn in Morocco.  Robert (if not Ruth) was also passionate about automobiles.  He could often be seen cruising about town in an antique (1939 Ford) or exotic (1967 Lotus Super 7) convertible, a dog with ears flapping in the wind by his side.

As a civil engineer, Brungraber was proud that his ancestry could be traced to 16th-Century Europe through his unusual surname, a shortening of the word Brunnengraeber, meaning "well digger."  His grandfather had emigrated in 1880 from Germany and settled in Michigan as a young man. Also through his father, Brungraber was descended from John Greene of Quidnessett (1609-1695), who emigrated from England to Rhode Island in 1639.  General Nathaniel Greene, Quartermaster General of the Continental Army, was a distant relation.  Levi Greene (1759-1851), a native of Massachusetts who fought in the American Revolution for a New York regiment, was an ancestor.  He and his wife followed their sons to Michigan just after it became a state. Through his mother, Brungraber was descended from settlers of Pennsylvania who also migrated to Michigan, both before and after statehood.

Robert Brungraber is survived by two children, Robert L. Brungraber and Margaret B. Ruttenberg, five grandchildren and seven great grandchildren.

He and his late wife were longtime members of the Nassau Presbyterian Church in Princeton, New Jersey.  There a memorial service will be held on 22 December 2022 at 2:00 pm.

Contributions in his memory may be made to the Nassau Presbyterian Church, Planned Parenthood Federation of America or the Sierra Club.