Brust, Bill, 1919-1991

Bill Brust was born in Budapest, Hungary on May 20, 1919. As a result of his father's participation in the failed 1919 Hungarian revolution, Brust's family emigrated to Minneapolis in 1920. He graduated from Minneapolis North High School in 1937 and entered the University of Minnesota the same year. During world War II Brust left the university and served in the Army Air Corps and Army Infantry (1942-1945). During his military service he was able to continue his education and received his baccalaureate from the University of Minnesota in 1944.

After the war Brust returned to Minneapolis and went to work at the Armour meat packing plant (1946-1949). He entered graduate school at the University of Minnesota in 1950 and obtained a master of arts degree in German with a minor in French in 1953. Unable to find a teaching position, Brust worked as a manager of the insurance division of Tilsenbilt Homes, Inc. in St. Paul (1953-1959). He returned to the University of Minnesota in 1959 to work on a Ph.D. in German, which he received in 1968. During this period he worked at the University as a teaching assistant and instructor in German (1959-1964) and accepted a teaching position at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota (1965).

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