Brudner, Harvey J., PhD, 78, passed away peacefully with his family at his side at the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick on Tuesday, September 15, 2009. He was born and raised in New York City and lived for many years in Highland Park, NJ. Dr. Brudner received B.S. degrees in Engineering and Physics and graduated cum laude from New York University in 1952. He received his M.S. in Physics two years later and his PhD in Theoretical Physics in 1959. Dr. Brudner became the President of Medical Development, Inc. in Jersey City and Fort Lee, NJ. Following his employment at Medical Development, Inc., he served as a professor and then Dean of the Science and Technology Department at New York Institute of Technology. Dr. Brudner was then asked to be President of Westinghouse Learning Corporation. He was very proud to have been made a fellow of the IEEE, for his leadership, development and application of computers and electronics, audio-visual systems in education and training. Dr. Brudner was also a research scientist at the Power Authority of the State of New York, (PASNY), from which he retired. Dr. Brudner was instrumental and active as the President of the Joyce Kilmer Centennial Commission in New Brunswick. He was also the President of the Highland Park (NJ) Centennial Commission and involved in a host of other organizations in Highland Park and Middlesex County including serving on advisory boards to Middlesex County College.An extremely kind, gregarious and thoughtful person, Dr. Brudner will be sadly missed by many. He was predeceased by his parents, Joseph and Anna, his brother Sol B. Brudner and is survived by his loving wife Helen G. Brudner, his devoted children, Mae Brudner and her husband, Edward Namath, T.J. Brudner and his wife Sharon, J. Scott Brudner, and his cherished granddaughter Nicole Namath.The Funeral Service will be held on Thursday, September 17th at 11 am at the Crabiel Parkwest Funeral Chapel, 239 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ. Internment will be private. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Highland Park Public Library, 31 North Fifth Street, Highland Park, NJ.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Monday, April 21, 2008
Playhouse Spooks Up City
Just in time for Halloween, staff and friends from the George Street Playhouse celebrated the ghosts and spirits of three of the city's most prominent historical personalities Saturday evening in a tour of the city connected with "Public Ghosts — Private Stories," a play about city history that will premiere at the Playhouse next spring.
In the chilly October air, Associate Producer George Ryan led 12 enthusiastic history and theater buffs through the city's downtown streets toward the first stop on the tour — the boyhood home of famous hometown poet Joyce Kilmer. A Dial-A-Ride bus, escorted by the Grim Reaper himself, drove 13 other tour-takers to each tour site, where they met up with Ryan's walking tour.
Kilmer expert Harvey Brudner of the Joyce Kilmer Centennial Commission met Ryan's group outside Kilmer's birthplace, a two-and-a-half-story frame house at 17 Codwise Ave. — now known as Joyce Kilmer Avenue — dating back to 1886. Brudner gave a quick, information-packed speech about Kilmer's life and career, two-thirds of which the poet spent in the city before he was killed in action during World War I at the age of 31 in the Battle of Chateau Thierry in France on July 30, 1918.
"Kilmer discovered the famous oak tree located about one mile away from where we stand near the Labor Education Center," Brudner said. "It was not until he wrote the poem 'Trees' that he became a famous poet around the world." The poem's iconic first couplet resounds: "I think that I shall never see/A poem lovely as a tree."
Guided by a woman with lit lanterns, the group went upstairs to Kilmer's bedroom, a small room decorated with original pictures and precious antiques, such as Kilmer's old writing desk and baby cup. "On cold, windy nights, the alarm mysteriously goes off in this room," the woman said softly. "It is said to be Kilmer's mother."
After the tour of the house, Ryan gathered guests outside. "Let's see." Ryan said jokingly. "We went in with 25 and only 12 stand outside with me now. How many more will come out alive?" While the house was being refurbished, Ryan explained, a couple of workmen were hired to hang a picture of Kilmer's wife in his bedroom, but the nail would not go through the wall. Finally, after many nailing attempts, the workmen gave up and found a different picture to hang in the same exact place. "The nail went right in!" Ryan exclaimed. "And when they finally got the picture of his wife Aline to hang in the other room, it kept falling off the wall again and again!"
City Hall on Bayard Street, the second stop on the tour, hosted a dramatic scene about handmaiden Bridget Deergan, played by Andrea Weldon. A poor, uneducated servant stricken with epilepsy, Deergan was convicted for arson and the murder of her employer Mrs. Coriel in the mid-1800s. Weldon successfully depicted the slaying through the mind of Deergan, who thought she was possessed by the devil.
At the end of the scene, the narrator warned the audience, "Whenever you walk through New Brunswick, you could be walking over Bridget Deegan's bones. She was buried in an unmarked grave after over 500 tickets were sold to city residents to watch her hang to her death on the tree right outside the window."
After about an hour into the tour, the group reached its final destination at Christ Church on 5 Paterson St. Under a tree in the church's burial ground — the final resting place of many New Jersey residents over the centuries — George Street Playhouse actress Gloria Garayua and actor David Gosnall presented a scene inspired by the life of John Bartley, a former slave dedicated to the education of both free people and slaves. At his death, Bartley left his estates and $6,000 — all he possessed — to the Christ Church, situated adjacent to his home and business.
Seduced by the dulcet sounds of organ music, the tour was ultimately led into the church, where Director of Music Mark Trautman ceased his playing to share aspects of the town's background and stories of legends and spirits. Rumor has it that when the sacristy is very quiet, people can hear the happy voices of slaves once hidden in the area on their way to freedom during the Civil War. "If you're very, very quiet," Trautman said, "maybe — just maybe — they will come."
In the chilly October air, Associate Producer George Ryan led 12 enthusiastic history and theater buffs through the city's downtown streets toward the first stop on the tour — the boyhood home of famous hometown poet Joyce Kilmer. A Dial-A-Ride bus, escorted by the Grim Reaper himself, drove 13 other tour-takers to each tour site, where they met up with Ryan's walking tour.
Kilmer expert Harvey Brudner of the Joyce Kilmer Centennial Commission met Ryan's group outside Kilmer's birthplace, a two-and-a-half-story frame house at 17 Codwise Ave. — now known as Joyce Kilmer Avenue — dating back to 1886. Brudner gave a quick, information-packed speech about Kilmer's life and career, two-thirds of which the poet spent in the city before he was killed in action during World War I at the age of 31 in the Battle of Chateau Thierry in France on July 30, 1918.
"Kilmer discovered the famous oak tree located about one mile away from where we stand near the Labor Education Center," Brudner said. "It was not until he wrote the poem 'Trees' that he became a famous poet around the world." The poem's iconic first couplet resounds: "I think that I shall never see/A poem lovely as a tree."
Guided by a woman with lit lanterns, the group went upstairs to Kilmer's bedroom, a small room decorated with original pictures and precious antiques, such as Kilmer's old writing desk and baby cup. "On cold, windy nights, the alarm mysteriously goes off in this room," the woman said softly. "It is said to be Kilmer's mother."
After the tour of the house, Ryan gathered guests outside. "Let's see." Ryan said jokingly. "We went in with 25 and only 12 stand outside with me now. How many more will come out alive?" While the house was being refurbished, Ryan explained, a couple of workmen were hired to hang a picture of Kilmer's wife in his bedroom, but the nail would not go through the wall. Finally, after many nailing attempts, the workmen gave up and found a different picture to hang in the same exact place. "The nail went right in!" Ryan exclaimed. "And when they finally got the picture of his wife Aline to hang in the other room, it kept falling off the wall again and again!"
City Hall on Bayard Street, the second stop on the tour, hosted a dramatic scene about handmaiden Bridget Deergan, played by Andrea Weldon. A poor, uneducated servant stricken with epilepsy, Deergan was convicted for arson and the murder of her employer Mrs. Coriel in the mid-1800s. Weldon successfully depicted the slaying through the mind of Deergan, who thought she was possessed by the devil.
At the end of the scene, the narrator warned the audience, "Whenever you walk through New Brunswick, you could be walking over Bridget Deegan's bones. She was buried in an unmarked grave after over 500 tickets were sold to city residents to watch her hang to her death on the tree right outside the window."
After about an hour into the tour, the group reached its final destination at Christ Church on 5 Paterson St. Under a tree in the church's burial ground — the final resting place of many New Jersey residents over the centuries — George Street Playhouse actress Gloria Garayua and actor David Gosnall presented a scene inspired by the life of John Bartley, a former slave dedicated to the education of both free people and slaves. At his death, Bartley left his estates and $6,000 — all he possessed — to the Christ Church, situated adjacent to his home and business.
Seduced by the dulcet sounds of organ music, the tour was ultimately led into the church, where Director of Music Mark Trautman ceased his playing to share aspects of the town's background and stories of legends and spirits. Rumor has it that when the sacristy is very quiet, people can hear the happy voices of slaves once hidden in the area on their way to freedom during the Civil War. "If you're very, very quiet," Trautman said, "maybe — just maybe — they will come."
Source: Lauren Halbrecht; Daily Targum; October 30, 2001
Articles citing Harvey Jerome Brudner
- Negro 'Ride' Plan Stirs New Furor. New York Times, April 25, 1962. Retrieved on April 15, 2008. "Javits Hits Segregationists' Bid To Send 1,000 North. Donors Not Named. Negro 'Ride' Plan Stirs New Furor Warns Other Negroes. Hebert Sees Hypocrisy. Javits and Keating Critical. Boyd 'Couldn't Be Happier' New Orleans A proposal to send a 'freedom train' up North carrying 1,000 Negroes on a free one-way ride away from segregation in the South drew new cries of outrage and support today. ... The company, which plans to manufacture medical electronic equipment, offered Mr. Boyd the job through its president, Dr. Harvey J. Brudner, of New ..."
- Negro Sent Here Given Bad Check. Father Of 8 Is Owed Pay. Employer In Hospital. New York Times, May 12, 1962. "Louis Boyd, the Negro father of eight whose family was the first to reach New York on bus tickets paid for by Southern segregationists, did not work yesterday for the third straight day. ... Harvey J. Brudner, president of the company, has been confined to a hospital ..."
- 120 Negroes Took 'Free Ride' North. White Council Had Hoped to Send 1,000 City Got 32. New York Times, June 13, 1962. "The plan of the segregationist White Citizens Councils to ship at least 1,000 impoverished Negroes to the North in "reverse Freedom Rides" has fallen far short of its goal. ... it was learned that Mr. Boyd was still on the payroll of Harvey J. Brudner, president of Medical Developments, Inc., in Fort Lee, New Jersey."
- Sexual Stereotyping Of Jobs Discouraging. The Lima News, June 5, 1974. "Westinghouse claims she lacked experience. We'd been grooming her for that kind of job, but she isn't at that level says Harvey Brudner, president of Westinghouse Learning Corp. ..."
- Computers Programmed for a Revolution. New York Times, April 30, 1978. "It has been 'almost an ignored revolution,' in the words of Harvey J. Brudner, a former president of Westinghouse Learning Corporation, ... From his own surveys, Dr. Brudner concludes that almost two million American ... Dr. Brudner said that expenditures on educational computing had more than ..."
- Tree at Rutgers marks Joyce Kilmer's centennial. New York Times, December 5, 1986. "Tomorrow an anyone-can-join-it parade will take place in New Brunswick, with a couple of bands, arborists, Girl Scouts, the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the dozen or so members of the local Joyce Kilmer Centennial Commission, headed by Dr. Harvey Brudner, an engineer and historian, leading off. ..."
- A Way Station On His Road To Immortality. Philadelphia Enquirer, December 7, 1986. "Joyce Kilmer? Never heard of her, was the oft-repeated response. ... 'We hope to use this 100th-birthday commemoration to make people more aware of Kilmer and his writings,' said Harvey Brudner, an engineer and historian who ..."
- A Time to Re-Joyce. Star Ledger, July 29, 1993. "Harvey Brudner, a retired Highland Park engineer who is chairman of the Middlesex County Joyce Kilmer Centennial Commission, said, ..."
- Kenton Kilmer, son of Jersey poet, dies at 85. Star Ledger, February 11, 1995. "Harvey J. Brudner, a Highland Park resident who heads the Joyce Kilmer Centennial Commission ..."
- A statue as lovely as a tree. The Review and the Highland Park Herald, November 16, 2001. "Dr. Harvey J. Brudner, a Highland Park resident who is the founder and president of the Joyce Kilmer Centennial Commission ..."
- Playhouse spooks up city. Daily Targum, October 30, 2001. "Kilmer expert Harvey Brudner of the Joyce Kilmer Centennial Commission met Ryan's group outside Kilmer's birthplace, a two-and-a-half-story frame house at 17 Codwise Ave. — now known as Joyce Kilmer Avenue — dating back to 1886. Brudner gave a quick, information-packed speech about Kilmer's life and career, two-thirds of which the poet spent in the city before he was killed in action during World War I at the age of 31 in the Battle of Chateau Thierry in France on July 30, 1918. 'Kilmer discovered the famous oak tree located about one mile away from where we stand near the Labor Education Center,' Brudner said. 'It was not until he wrote the poem 'Trees' that he became a famous poet around the world.' The poem's iconic first couplet resounds: 'I think that I shall never see/A poem lovely as a tree.' "
- Let us all now praise good men -- and Highland Park. Home News Tribune, November 20, 2003.
- Famous 'Tree' poem originates at U. Daily Targum, October 12, 2004. "Harvey J. Brudner, president of the Joyce Kilmer Centennial Commission, said a student had to pass the entire year of courses during the time that Kilmer went to school in order to progress to the next year. Unfortunately, Kilmer was not the best math student and was told he had to repeat his sophomore year. Instead of repeating every course, he and his parents decided it was best for him to change schools. He then became a student at Columbia in New York City. ... Brudner worked with Kenton Kilmer, Joyce Kilmer's son, in 1986 to establish the Joyce Kilmer Centennial Commission. Brudner said of Kenton Kilmer, 'The more I studied with him about the background of his father, I realized the more important the life of Joyce Kilmer will be when understood.' "
- Highland Park man puts new twist on old math. Herald Reporter, February 22, 2002. "Good things happen to Harvey Brudner when he travels ..."
- Borough children celebrate 100 years. Daily Targum, March 23, 2005. "Also in attendance was Harvey Brudner, a former University professor and current president of both the Highland Park Centennial Commission and the Joyce Kilmer Centennial Commission."
- Happy Birthday, Joyce Kilmer. Home News Tribune, December 7, 2006. "Harvey J. Brudner, of Highland Park, president of the Joyce Kilmer Centennial Commission ..."
- It's hard to imagine a world without trees. Home News Tribune, November 29, 2007. Retrieved on December 23, 2007. "Master of ceremonies was Dr. Harvey J. Brudner of Highland Park, a retired scientist and physicist, who is an Alliance director and a long time aficionado of Kilmer. Since 1985 Brudner has been curator of the Kilmer birthplace house. He remains head of the Joyce Kilmer Centennial Commission, established to honor the 100th year of Kilmer's birth. ... At 76, Brudner could be described as a man of varied interests. He has written about solving virtually implacable mathematical problems, using theories that go back to the early Babylonians. Talk to him any length of time and you will get an explanation of how the Babylonians — about a thousand years before the Greeks and using their own system — were able to solve what came to be known as the Pythagorean Theorem, by simply using the numbers 2 and 8."
Articles by Harvey Jerome Brudner
- "Thomas-Fermi Technique for Determining Wave Functions for Alkali Atoms with Excited Valence Electrons." (1960). Physical Review 120 (6): 2053-2063. “A technique has been developed for the calculation of excited state, one-electron wave functions based on the Thomas-Fermi statistical theory of the atom.”
- Computer-Managed Instruction; Science; November 29, 1968: 970-976
- (1971) Algebra and Trigonometry: A Programmed Course with Applications. New York Institute of Technology and McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0070463816.
- "The Past, Present And Future Of Technology In Higher Education" (1977). The Journal of Technological Horizons in Education.
- Elesvier Seqouia, S.A., Lausanne, Switzerland. "The Symmetry of Powered Whole Numbers." Vol. 4, No. 3, 1981
- (1994) Fermat and the Missing Numbers. ISBN 0964478501.
- "How the Babylonians Solved Numbered Triangle Problems 3,600 Years Ago", Technological Horizons In Education, 1998. Retrieved on April 14, 2008. "A classic mystery locked in a 3,600-year-old Babylonian clay tablet has been solved! How did the Babylonians know the Pythagorean theorem a thousand years before the Greek mathematician and philosopher was born? For those who have forgotten their geometry, the Pythagorean theorem states: 'The square of the hypotenuse of a right-angle triangle is equal to the sum of the squares of the two ...'"
- Home News Tribune; May 29, 2006; Poet Honored War Dead Before Own Death in World War I.
- Home News Tribune; July 30, 2006; Joyce Kilmer Legacy: A Famous Poem and a Question Never to be Answered.
- The Daily Targum; February 5, 2007; Two Even Numbers Can Produce Pythagorean Triples.
- The Daily Targum; September 4, 2007; The Babylonian Approach is Easier.
- The Daily Targum; November 28, 2007; Why 4,961 6,480 & 8,161?
- "Historical Society committed to preserving Kilmer birthplace", Home News Tribune, April 14, 2008. Retrieved on April 14, 2008. "On March 20, the Home News Tribune provided the architectural rendering of the proposed New Brunswick Pinnacle Complex. The plan indicated that two of the sides of this pentagon-shaped complex included Joyce Kilmer North Avenue and Joyce Kilmer Avenue."
Brudner patents
- U.S. Patent 3,139,753 Digital Meter (1962)
- U.S. Patent 3,408,749 Branching-Instruction Teaching Device (1968)
- U.S. Patent 3,504,446 Comparator Switch Set (1970)
- U.S. Patent 3,504,447 Student Keyboard (1970)
- U.S. Patent 3,654,708 Computer-Assisted Instruction Via Video Telephone (1972)
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
120 Negroes Took 'Free Ride' North. White Council Had Hoped to Send 1,000 City Got 32
120 Negroes Took 'Free Ride' North. White Council Had Hoped to Send 1,000 City Got 32
The plan of the segregationist White Citizens Councils to ship at least 1,000 impoverished Negroes to the North in "reverse Freedom Rides" has fallen far short of its goal. ... it was learned that Mr. Boyd was still on the payroll of Harvey J. Brudner, president of Medical Developments, Inc., in Fort Lee, N. J. His salary is ...
Note: "Harvey N. Brudner" is used in the article and has been corrected to read "Harvey J. Brudner". There are two other articles in this series and the other two use the correct name.
Source: New York Times; June 13, 1962
Monday, April 14, 2008
Famous 'Tree' poem originates at U.
Famous 'Tree' poem originates at U.
It is not every day a University tree is the inspiration to a famous literary work. However, this is the case in Joyce Kilmer's famous poem, "Trees."
His poem begins with its two most famous lines: "I think that I shall never see / A poem lovely as a tree." An old, 70-foot-high white oak tree that used to be located at the Rutgers Agricultural School, later the location of the Labor Education Center on Cook campus, was Kilmer's inspiration to this world-renowned poem.
Since then, this famous 300-year-old tree had to be cut down in 1963 because it was dying. Although it was hewed four decades ago, its remnants still exist today, and most of the pieces of the tree are still owned by Cook College.
This past June, Highland Park planted another tree in front of Highland Park High School to mark the 100th anniversary of the day Kilmer saw the white oak at the University.
This tree is considered the grandchild of Kilmer's inspirational tree, because it is genetically and biologically the same as the tree Kilmer saw 100 years ago.
Kilmer was a student at Rutgers College from 1904-06. He was also a reporter and associate editor of The Daily Targum before he transferred to Columbia University where he graduated in 1908.
Harvey J. Brudner, president of the Joyce Kilmer Centennial Commission, said a student had to pass the entire year of courses during the time that Kilmer went to school in order to progress to the next year. Unfortunately, Kilmer was not the best math student and was told he had to repeat his sophomore year. Instead of repeating every course, he and his parents decided it was best for him to change schools. He then became a student at Columbia in New York City.
However, Kilmer found a way to always remember his time at the University.
As a student, he discovered a tall white oak and later wrote "Trees," which has been translated into many different languages and has been the foundation of many young students' lessons of memorization in the younger grades.
After graduating from Columbia, he became a teacher. He continued his writing with various poems, essays and even a play. He also worked for The New York Times. However, his various works never received much recognition. In a 2001 Star-Ledger article, staff-writer Alexander Lane regarded Kilmer as a "one-hit wonder of a poet."
Kilmer was a resident of New Brunswick for 20 of his 31 years of life. He was killed during World War I in 1918 when he was fighting in France.
Kilmer also has many notable family ties. His father was Fred Kilmer, director of scientific affairs at Johnson & Johnson - which opened in New Brunswick in 1886 - and developer of baby powder. An ancestor of his was traced down to one of the signers of the Magna Carta as well.
Brudner worked with Kenton Kilmer, Joyce Kilmer's son, in 1986 to establish the Joyce Kilmer Centennial Commission. Brudner said of Kenton Kilmer, "The more I studied with him about the background of his father, I realized the more important the life of Joyce Kilmer will be when understood."
The main objective of the commission is to help Kilmer acquire more recognition for his works by selling books about him and explaining his different works. Members try to stress the importance of his works and help others understand their meanings. They have even attempted to have stamps made in Kilmer's recognition.
His poem begins with its two most famous lines: "I think that I shall never see / A poem lovely as a tree." An old, 70-foot-high white oak tree that used to be located at the Rutgers Agricultural School, later the location of the Labor Education Center on Cook campus, was Kilmer's inspiration to this world-renowned poem.
Since then, this famous 300-year-old tree had to be cut down in 1963 because it was dying. Although it was hewed four decades ago, its remnants still exist today, and most of the pieces of the tree are still owned by Cook College.
This past June, Highland Park planted another tree in front of Highland Park High School to mark the 100th anniversary of the day Kilmer saw the white oak at the University.
This tree is considered the grandchild of Kilmer's inspirational tree, because it is genetically and biologically the same as the tree Kilmer saw 100 years ago.
Kilmer was a student at Rutgers College from 1904-06. He was also a reporter and associate editor of The Daily Targum before he transferred to Columbia University where he graduated in 1908.
Harvey J. Brudner, president of the Joyce Kilmer Centennial Commission, said a student had to pass the entire year of courses during the time that Kilmer went to school in order to progress to the next year. Unfortunately, Kilmer was not the best math student and was told he had to repeat his sophomore year. Instead of repeating every course, he and his parents decided it was best for him to change schools. He then became a student at Columbia in New York City.
However, Kilmer found a way to always remember his time at the University.
As a student, he discovered a tall white oak and later wrote "Trees," which has been translated into many different languages and has been the foundation of many young students' lessons of memorization in the younger grades.
After graduating from Columbia, he became a teacher. He continued his writing with various poems, essays and even a play. He also worked for The New York Times. However, his various works never received much recognition. In a 2001 Star-Ledger article, staff-writer Alexander Lane regarded Kilmer as a "one-hit wonder of a poet."
Kilmer was a resident of New Brunswick for 20 of his 31 years of life. He was killed during World War I in 1918 when he was fighting in France.
Kilmer also has many notable family ties. His father was Fred Kilmer, director of scientific affairs at Johnson & Johnson - which opened in New Brunswick in 1886 - and developer of baby powder. An ancestor of his was traced down to one of the signers of the Magna Carta as well.
Brudner worked with Kenton Kilmer, Joyce Kilmer's son, in 1986 to establish the Joyce Kilmer Centennial Commission. Brudner said of Kenton Kilmer, "The more I studied with him about the background of his father, I realized the more important the life of Joyce Kilmer will be when understood."
The main objective of the commission is to help Kilmer acquire more recognition for his works by selling books about him and explaining his different works. Members try to stress the importance of his works and help others understand their meanings. They have even attempted to have stamps made in Kilmer's recognition.
Source: Annie Reuter; Daily Targum; October 12, 2004
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
