This scholarship is being given in memory of Dr. Fred C. Bruhns, professor emeritus at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA).
Fred Bruhns came to Pitt in 1965 to complete his Ph.D. and join the faculty at GSPIA, where he taught comparative administration and administrative theory. He also held a master’s degree in sociology from Stanford University, and an undergraduate degree from Ohio State University. He retired as professor emeritus in 1985. Following World War II, Bruhns had widespread and varying diplomatic experience with international refugee and U.S. government organizations. Between 1948 and 1964, he served in Austria with the International Refugee Organization, resettling European refugees; in Lebanon and Israel as a Ford Foundation scholar, conducting research on Palestinian refugee attitudes, and in South Vietnam, resettling North Vietnamese refugees. In those years he also served stints in Cambodia, Iran and Gabon under the auspices of the United States Agency for International Development, and in Germany and Greece as a delegate of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.
In 1961, Bruhns was honored with the Royal Order of the Phoenix for service to the Greek government.
When Fred Bruhns came to GSPIA in 1965, his wife E.Maxine joined the staff of the Nationality Rooms, where she subsequently was named director.
The couple has funded a number of international scholarships and other programs at the University totaling more than $1 million in gifts. About a quarter of the donations have gone to Pitt’s European Union Center of Excellence.