Zoology Professor Emeritus L. Herbert Bruneau established the “Herbert and Betty Bruneau Endowed Zoology Seminar Fund” with a $25,000 gift to the department. Interest from the fund will be used to support off-campus speaker travel expenses as well as other seminar related costs. The fund will greatly assist with seminar offerings in OSU Zoology.
Herbert Bruneau was born in Cornwall, Ontario, Canada, and schooled in New Brunswick. He graduated from McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, with a B.Sc. and a major of General Science. He entered Graduate College at the University of Texas, Austin to study cytology and genetics with Michael J. D. White and Wilson S. Stone. He completed an M.A. and Ph.D. at UT. He then joined the Faculty of the Department of Zoology at the Oklahoma A & M College (now the Oklahoma State University) in the Fall of 1955, taught for 40 years, and retired in 1995. He served as the Zoology undergraduate academic advisor for most of his tenure and administered the Biological Sciences program for non-majors for many years. He taught courses in Biological Sciences, Genetics, Cytology, and Evolution and offered the first departmental courses in Evolution and Human Heredity. He received the Amoco and the Regents Teaching Awards and was involved with the NSF Academic Year and Summer Institute Programs for High School Science Teachers. Bruneau was a member of the Council of Teacher Education, the Allied Arts Committee and the Pre-Medical Advisory Committee, to name a few.
Bruneau was very involved with Boy Scouting for about two decades wearing many hats, ranging from Cubmaster, Assistant Scoutmaster, District Committeeman to membership on the Will Rogers Council. He married Betty Leifheit, a fellow graduate student, in 1953. They have two children, Carol, a Professor of Marketing at the University of Montana, Missoula, and David, working in mid-management at Boeing Aircraft, Mesa, Arizona. Since retirement, he and his wife have attended many Elderhostel programs, and enjoyed visiting wineries.