Maxine Bruhns of Pittsburgh, aged 96 years and 7 months, passed away after a brief illness on Friday, July 17, 2020 at UPMC Shadyside.

 

Born Eleanor Maxine Moose in Grafton, West Virginia, she was the loving daughter of Elva McDaniel Moose and George Walker Moose.  Gracious, feisty, and driven, she called herself a “West Virginia hillbilly”, a term she still used proudly to honor her roots.  When she was two, her family moved to Bridgeport, where she attended Bridgeport High School.  She graduated in 1941 with high honors and received a scholarship to West Virginia Wesleyan College in Buckhannon.    After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Maxine left Wesleyan for the Glenn L. Martin aircraft factory in Hagerstown, MD. There she worked on B-26 Marauder bomber wings.

 

After the war ended, she completed her bachelor in Philosophy and Psychology degree at Ohio State University in Columbus, OH.  There she met and, in 1946, married the love of her life, Fred C. Bruhns. Fred was a German student who had immigrated to American in 1941, after serving 2 years in Berlin’s Moabiet prison for anti-Nazi activity.  He had promptly joined the US Army, eventually returning to Europe as a second lieutenant in Military Intelligence. Maxine recalled that when he proposed, he told her “If you marry me, I warn you that you will have to travel.”

 

He had told the truth. After Fred became a refugee specialist, they lived and worked abroad for 15 years. Their journey began in 1947, when Maxine joined McGraw Hill in New York City as an editor. The writing skill she developed there served her well for the rest of her life.  In 1948 they moved to Linz, Austria where Maxine was employed by the US Army Transportation Corps while Fred worked with the International Refugee Organization to resettle refugees.  

 

When they returned briefly to America, the couple studied at Stanford University. There Fred specialized in the migration of refugees.    

 

In 1952 they moved to Beirut, Lebanon.  While Fred researched Palestinian Refugee Attitudes, Maxine completed her Master’s Degree in Psychology at the American University of Beirut.  From 1955 to 1957 the lived in Saigon and Da Lat, where Fred helped resettle 800,000 North Vietnamese refugees and Maxine taught English to South Vietnamese Army Officers.   In 1958 they were relocated to Phnom Phen, where Fred worked with USAID and Maxine worked with CARE and taught English to Buddhist monks.  When they were posted to Tehran, Fred worked with USAID and Maxine taught English at the U.S. Information Center.  In 1963 they spent a year in Athens, where Fred was UN High Commissioner for Refugees. In 1964 they lived in Gabon.  It was then that Maxine met Dr. Albert Schweitzer at his Lambarene Hospital and where she adopted his philosophy “to kill no living thing.” 

 

During this nomadic existence, Maxine became fluent in French and German, and conversant in Greek, Arabic, and Farsi. Altogether, she and Fred traveled to more that 80 countries.

 

In 1965, Fred was offered a position at the University of Pittsburgh. Starting as an executive secretary, Maxine quickly became Director of the Nationality Rooms and Intercultural Exchange Programs (NRIEP) at the University. The program has never been the same.   Her position involved working closely with more than 35 ethnic groups to create new Nationality Rooms, administering the Summer Study Abroad Scholarship Program, maintaining the rooms (which are Historic Landmarks), and perpetuating the cultures and traditions of the communities’ homelands. She always said that she did not have a career; the career came to her and she did the best with what she had.

 

Once she became Program Director, it became her entire life.   Initially there were 19 rooms and only 8 Summer Study Abroad Scholarships.  Her sense of mission and vision for the program extended decades into the next century.  There are now 31 Nationality and Heritage Rooms. Last year 54 Pitt students studied in 35 countries through the NRIEP’s Summer Study Abroad Scholarship. In 2019 over 25,000 tourists and visitors were introduced to the Rooms.  Maxine herself initiated several annual events, including the Holiday Open House in December and the Halloween Ghost Watch in the Early American Room, among others.  The concerts, lectures and festivals continue to multiply.  She also created the Cathedral of Learning Information and Gift Center in 1967.  As Director she oversaw construction of 12 new Nationality and Heritage Rooms: Israel Heritage (1987), Armenian (1988), African Heritage (1989), Ukrainian (1990), Austrian (1997), Japanese (1999), Indian (2000), Welsh (2008), Turkish (2012), Swiss (2012), Korean Heritage (2015) and Philippine (2019).  

 

Maxine was a guest lecturer in University courses on Pittsburgh Ethnic Life and the Administration of Volunteer Organizations.   It was important for her not just to educate people, but also build personal relationships with them.

 

She was a hands-on community activist, serving as Vice-President on the National Ethnic Studies Assembly, the Advisory Boards for the Old Post Office Museum, Ethnic Planning Group, WQED-TV, Emergency Schools Aids Act, People Pittsburgh, and Pittsburgh Tourism.  She was a consultant for the Allegheny County Park of Nations.   

 

In 1993 Maxine was designated Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania for an outstanding career of service to the community, to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, to her country, and to young people throughout the world.  Her other awards included:  World Affairs Council’s David Glick award for her exemplary contribution to our understanding of world affairs through the combination of art, artistry and scholarship; American Lebanese Congress Ethnic Heritage Dr. Nicholas H. Bitar Award, Arab-American Cultural Center of Pittsburgh; YWCA A Tribute to Women-Excellence in Education Award; Western Pennsylvania Slovak Cultural Association’s Educational Award; W. VA. Wesleyan College Ph.D. in Humane Letter, Honoris Causa;  Pennsylvania Federated Museums and Historic Organization – Professional Award, Women and Girls Foundation – Lifetime Achievement Award and Embrace the World Award from the University Center of International Studies.

 

 

Maxine endowed a University of Pittsburgh Graduate Scholarship for Summer Study in the Middle East.  She likewise funded her alma mater Bridgeport High School’s scholarship for girls’ college tuition. She created four summer study abroad scholarships at West Virginia Wesleyan College. Her generosity even crossed borders, financing Bright Kids Uganda, a program to assist homeless children. They called her Mamma Maxine.

 

Maxine was ahead of her time in her style of directing the Nationality Rooms; she greatly valued diversity at the University.  She recognized the changing population in Pittsburgh and made every effort to have it represented. She was very open-minded and always said that “We all came from somewhere to America and we need to appreciate the things that immigrants brought to enrich American culture.”

Maxine held her position for 54 years.  She retired on December 31, 2019, two weeks before her 96th birthday.  In her last public letter, she reflected on her years abroad and her role at Pitt:

“I survived all of these different moves with no tragedies and learning not to hate but always appreciating the culture in which I was living, I brought that back with me and found this marvelous job where I used those experiences to establish a legacy that will continue beyond my time with you. These rooms and programs that are so dear to me will remain my greatest accomplishment.”

Maxine took interest in and advocated the continued respectful use of the rooms for classroom instructions. She always pushed for the widest possible public audience to learn from touring them just as the University’s students would find inspiration from having classes in them.  Maxine was a careful custodian of the rooms and placed great emphasis on good and productive relationships with facilities management, classroom instruction and management staff.  

 

Maxine will always be remembered by friends and colleagues as a unique and exceptionally driven individual who possessed a singular character and an unfaltering drive for excellence. Her leadership and devotion to the Nationality Rooms have made them a matter of great pride for the University for generations to come.   

 

Memorial donations may be made to the University of Pittsburgh, c/o Nationality Room, 1209 Cathedral of learning, 4500 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15260.