Brodfuehrer, Oscar M., 1889-1962

Dates

• Existence: 1889-1962

Biography

Oscar M. Brodfuehrer was born on November 27, 1889, in Chicago. After graduating from Lakeview High school, he attended Columbia College of Expression for one term before entering Northwestern University in 1908. At Northwestern he was involved in a number of activities, including the political society Aleph Teth Nun, the Dramatic Club, Deutsche Gesellscahft, and the Syllabus Board. He graduated in 1912 and the following year began working at the Chicago Tribune where he became head of the copy and art services in the Advertising Department. In 1917 he married his classmate, Vera Penberthy. After 1926 he was a freelance advertising agent in Chicago until he purchased the Churchill’s of Kentucky Gift Shop in the Palmer House Hotel, where he remained until his retirement in 1959. He died after a heart attack on August 13, 1962, a few months after he and his wife had marked the 50th year since their graduation from Northwestern.

Vera Ethel Penberthy was born on April 21, 1891, in Chicago. She graduated from high school in Florence, Wisconsin (in a class of five students), and entered Northwestern in 1908. She was involved in the YWCA and the Eulexia Literary Society, and was named to Phi Beta Kappa. After graduating in 1912, she worked in Northwestern’s Lunt Library. She died on October 28, 1975. She and her husband had lived in Evanston since 1923, sharing their home with one of her sisters, Evelyn Hope Penberthy, another Northwestern graduates (Liberal Arts 1925). Two more Penberthy siblings also attended Northwestern: their brother Laverne (Dental School 1915) and sister Florence (class of 1919) .

Oscar and Vera Brodfuehrer  had two sons, of whom one, James, also attended Northwestern (class of 1943).

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