Clara H. Brucker was born in Iowa, then moved to Michigan where she graduated from Saginaw High School. Although teaching was her first love, she decided on a business career when the First World War broke out. After graduation from Drexel Institute she became a statistician for Du Pont and later for General Motors in New York, where she also studied magazine writing at Columbia.
In 1923 she married Wilber Brucker, then Prosecuting Attorney of Saginaw County, later to become Attorney General and Governor of Michigan, as well as Secretary of the Army. In the early 1930s, Clara Brucker received her B.A. in economics and M.A. in political science from Michigan State College.
Throughout her life, Clara Brucker was involved in many activities and organizations, including the School of Government, which she organized in 1940 and headed for over twenty years; the Detroit Children's Aid Society; the International YWCA; the auxiliary of Rainbow Division Veterans; and the Republican Auxiliary. In Washington she was Chairman of the Endowment Fund of the Soldiers', Sailors', Marines' and Airmen's Club.
From the guide to the Clara H. Brucker papers, 1920-1980, (Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan)
