Spring 2009

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Former Career Services Director Networks With Alumni in Retirement

By Ed Adcock

Roger Bruene (’56 agronomy) wasn’t into golf or gardening. So when he retired as director of college career services in 1998, he moved 80 boxes of papers from his office in Curtiss Hall to a storage unit with good intentions to go through each box. How has his one-box-a-month plan worked out?

“It’s now 10 years later and I still have the storage unit which is a bit troublesome, since I do pay rent on it. Anyhow, I still haven’t brought a box home,” Bruene says.

The experience taught him a valuable lesson, which he passes on to others facing retirement: “Things you didn’t like to do before you retired, you probably won’t like to do after you retire.”

So what does Bruene like to do? He and his wife, Barbara who retired from Iowa State’s College of Design when he did, have been busy traveling and learning.

They have participated in several Elderhostel programs and College for Seniors classes offered by the Iowa State Alumni Association. They also visit their children and grandchildren in Des Moines and Seattle and spend winters near Fort Myers, Fla.

While in Florida, the Bruenes are active in an Iowa State alumni group for which they currently serve as co-chairs with Dennis (’56 animal science) and Mary Lu Johnson. The group of more than 100 mostly retired members hold ISU basketball game watches and an annual brunch.

When he’s back in Ames, Bruene visits campus frequently. And he always tries to attend Ag Career Day, an event he helped create and is known for. He compliments Mike Gaul, his successor as career services director, for his work at growing the event.

“The impact of working with students was very dear and meaningful to me,” he says.

Looking around at the most recent Ag Career Day, he estimated very few employers were present at his first Ag Career Day in 1975. Sometimes he recognizes representatives of organizations, but more and more of the graduates he worked with have moved into other positions. Bruene says Ag Career Day illustrates the dynamic nature of agriculture.

“When I started in the college, in the ’60s and ’70s, the career areas most in demand included the meat industry, agricultural credit, ag chemicals and the seed industry. In the ’80s and ’90s farm supply businesses started coming.

And now you have the biorenewable and technology-related firms plus all of the others,” Bruene says. “What’s refreshing to me is that there are huge numbers of these organizations coming to Iowa State for talent.”

"I Love My Job" - Roger That!

Roger Bruene made quite an impression on Roger Underwood when they met during Underwood’s freshman year in 1979. Underwood says he liked Bruene right away for his positive and encouraging manner. A friendship grew that continues to this day. When Underwood heard Bruene was dismayed after hearing from graduates suffering through the Farm Crisis of the ’80s, he got an idea. “I told him, “Roger, you need to know there are people out there who love their jobs,” Underwood says. “So every time I would travel, and it was a lot in those days, I would send him a postcard and I would only say, ‘I love my job.’ ” Underwood encouraged other alumni to do the same. Bruene still gets postcards from Underwood, and has kept them all. He treasures a picture of Underwood at the Great Wall holding a makeshift sign that says, “I love my job.” “This was very unique in what he did at a time when for some reason I was feeling a little down. And to have him pick up on that was rewarding to me,” Bruene says. Read more about Roger Underwood on page 22.