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Frank Verbrugge Collection

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Title: Frank Verbrugge Collection, 1894-1995

ID: COLL/529

Primary Creator: Verbrugge, Frank (1913-1985)

Extent: 2.5 Cubic Feet. More info below.

Arrangement: Folder level description

Includes articles, academic records, correspondence, photographs, and personal and family material. Topics details the teaching of physics, science and engineering education (particularly in South America), The development of the emerging field of digital technology beginning in the 1950s, and the movement of the University of Minnesota into what would be labeled the computer age.

Born 22 December 1913 in Chandler, Minnesota, to Jacobus and Maria (née van der Vliet) Verbrugge, Frank Verbrugge graduated from Chandler High School, Northwestern Junior College, Calvin College, and earned his MA (1940) and PhD (1942) from the University of Missouri in physics.  He taught physics at the University of Missouri, Northeastern Missouri State Teachers College, Carleton College, the University of Minnesota, and one summer at Columbia University. While at Carleton College he served as Chair of the Physic Department, 1947-1956.  At the University of Minnesota, in addition to teaching, he served as dean of the Institute of Technology and later as director of Computer Services.

A professor of physics, Verbrugge developed particular interest in physics education, physics and engineering in South America, technical education in Minnesota, and application of the emerging computer technology beginning in the 1950s. An accomplished, and respected scholar and educator, he served in a number of national professional organizations, published his research, and served as a consultant for the Ford Foundation on science and engineering instruction in South America. He retired in 1983.

Verbrugge married Cora Helen Tromp Roelofs on 27 December 1940.  They had four children: Anne Louis (married Thomas Hughes Martin), Lois Marie (married Elmer G. Gilbert), Robert Roelofs (married Noreen Elizabeth Hughes), and Martha Helen. Verbrugge died 16 January 1985.

[Note:  see also Heritage Hall books The Life of a Dutch American: George Roelofs, 1853-1919, of Zwolle, the Netherlands, and Grand Rapids, Michigan: His Ancestry, Life, and Descendants with Photographs, Maps, and Genealogical Charts by Cora Helen Roelofs Verbrugge-CT274 .R635 V47 1994; Brieven uit het Verleden:  Samenstelling en Redactie door Frank Verbrugge (Letters from the Past: Compiled and Edited by Frank Verbrugge)-CT274 .V47 B75 1981; Whither thou Goest: The Life Story of Jacobus and Maria Verbrugge in Minnesota-CS71 .V843 1979.

See also Cora Helen Roelofs Verbrugge. Papers - collection 528]