Albert F Brockelman
Albert F. Brockelman, age 98, of Menomonie, died Friday December 20, 2013 at The Neighbors of Dunn County in Menomonie.
April 4, 1915 was legally established as his birthday when he was found on the steps of an orphanage in San Francisco, CA. It was there he was given the first of several names, and was called John Ester because it was Easter Sunday. At the age of 3, Al and his foster mother lived in Yakima, Wash. His foster mother died and he was placed with the Washington Children’s Home Society, where the Brockelman’s picked him up as their only child and named him Frederick Albert. With the Brockelman’s he learned to speak German and was not allowed to speak English. His adoptive mother was abusive and institutionalized and Albert was placed with his maternal grandparents in Orange, CA, where he spent happy elementary years.
During high school, he worked at Concordia College in Portland, Ore., washing dishes, and he also worked at a Chinese flower garden. After high school, he became a hobo and hitched a ride on the Northern Pacific Railroad sheep train that originated in Ellensburgh, WA, and was headed for Minnesota. He landed at the South St. Paul stockyards where a cattle truck driver picked him up and dropped him off at the dormitory at Dr. Martin Luther College in New Ulm, MN. Because of his baggy pants, mannerisms and the way he walked, he was nicknamed Charlie after Charlie Chaplin. Al’s wife, Esther, thought it was possible he was a descendant of Charlie Chaplin, whose biography reveals many illegitimate children, including one in San Francisco. At Martin Luther, he washed dishes and worked on campus. During the summers, he worked as a farm hand in Claremont, MT.
Albert graduated from college in 1936, and played the pipe organ at commencement exercises, an honor bestowed on only the best. Al eventually taught all eight grades in a one-room school in Truman, MN where he also served as janitor, church organist and church choir director. He then attended Yakima Business College and majored in accounting. Al got a job as a bookkeeper and married Esther Pasche in 1937. Six months later, with their first child on the way, he was laid off. After much searching, Al landed a job as a gandy dancer for the Northern Pacific Railroad on the extra gang, living in a box car and traveling from town to town repairing or replacing railroad tracks. He was promoted and became a clerk in a depot in Sunnyside, WA.
During World War II, Al was appointed as Senior Accountant for DuPont on the Atomic Bomb project in Hanford, WA. It was a secretive job, and the company advised the draft board every six months not to draft Al Brockelman. Al also moonlighted as a bank teller. When the war ended, Al became an entrepreneur in Seymour, Ind. He began an Oldsmobile Agency, Minneapolis Moline Farm Implement Agency and Diamond T Truck Agency. He sold that business in 1958 and became a comptroller for a hand blown glass manufacturing company in Hartford City, Ind. Contacts he made in the automobile business prevailed upon him to move to Menomonie and be the AAL (Aid Association of Lutherans) representative. Al sold life insurance and became a member of the “Million Dollar Round Table and one of the top 10 salesmen in the U.S., retiring in 1983.
Al served 14 years on the Menomonie city council, seven as president. He also served five years on the Zoning Board of Appeals as president. Al was vice president of Menomonie Public Library Board, project director for the new library; president of the Memorial Hospital Board; served 12 years on the Myrtle Werth Hospital Finance Board; was president of the Menomonie Chamber of Commerce; president of the Dunn County United Way; president of the Menomonie Ambulance Board; served 20 years as secretary of the Menomonie Rotary Club; was chairman of SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives); served several years as treasurer for the Dunn County Republican Party. Al’s most treasured recognition was being selected as the Menomonie Distinguished Citizen of the Year in 1997. Other accomplishments include being a charter member of three different congregations in different cities, serving as Sunday school teacher, church organist and choir director. He also served St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Menomonie as Sunday school teacher, choir director, as president of the congregation for five years and church treasurer for 20 years.
Al is survived by his wife, Ruth, of Menomonie; and children, Betty (Patrick) McDonald of The Villages, FL; David (Betty) Brockelman of Indianapolis, IN: Daughter-in-law, Betty Eich of The Villages, FL; 11 grandchildren; 18 great-grandchildren and 2 great great grandchildren.
Al was preceded in death by his first wife, Esther, whom he was married to for 56 years; a son, John, in 1993; his second wife, Freda, in 2003, and a son Dean in 2011.