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In Memoriam

  • John E. Brush

John E. Brush (1919-2007) and family lived in Piscataway, NJ before he and his wife Miriam moved to the Quaker-related retirement community of Medford Leas. Born on September 2, 1919, in Jefferson, PA, he grew up in India, where his parents served as Baptist missionaries in Kharagpur, Bengal.  John returned to the US after graduating from Woodstock School, in Mussoorie, in 1937.  He left Bucknell University to volunteer for earthquake relief sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee in Tuxpan, Jalisco, Mexico. After completing a B.A. from the University of Chicago (1942), he served in Civilian Public Service as a conscientious objector (1943-46).  He earned an M.A. (1947) and a Ph.D (1952) in Geography from the University of Wisconsin.

A Professor Emeritus of Geography at Rutgers University, he served on the faculty for 35 years, including a number as department chair. With an interest born from his childhood experiences, he relished exploring the world, professionally and recreationally, through the lens of geography, and sharing with others what he knew and learned.  His particular love of cartography and maps began with mapping his boyhood hikes in the Himalayas. His research was concentrated in Wisconsin, New Jersey, and the cities of India, but his professional and personal interests took him across the United States and to Africa, the British Isles, China, France, Russia, and Scandinavia.  His research awards included a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship and several Senior Fellowships from the American Institute of Indian Studies for research in India (1965-66, 1973-74, and 1981-82).

When John retired, the map collection in the Rutgers Department of Geography was named in his honor. Below are links to a sample of the maps John created.

New Jersey

New York

Wisconsin

South Asia

 

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