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illusiondweller
Trad climber
San Diego, CA
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Topic Author's Original Post - Dec 23, 2010 - 04:31am PT
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Anyone know what happened to Mr. Brueckner?
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rlf
Trad climber
Josh, CA
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Dec 23, 2010 - 11:06am PT
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I saw Keith once last year. He was out for a day. His knees are really bad, and I don't anticipate seeing him out here again.
Great guy.
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illusiondweller
Trad climber
San Diego, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 24, 2010 - 02:24am PT
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Was that out in Josh? Gosh, he must be near 90 no?
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rlf
Trad climber
Josh, CA
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Dec 24, 2010 - 05:58am PT
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Yeah that's the man himself! Yes, it was in Josh.
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deepnet
Boulder climber
CA
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Dec 24, 2010 - 08:09am PT
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tinker b
climber
the commonwealth
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Dec 24, 2010 - 08:56am PT
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hey he was born on the very same day as my dad!!!
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rlf
Trad climber
Josh, CA
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Dec 24, 2010 - 09:40am PT
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Yeah I have the guide book. Keith gate me a copy years ago. He is a very smart man. We had a very long and fun conversation about chaos theory while we were climbing. We also had a friend in common, Murray Gell-Mann.
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Debby Norwood
climber
San Diego
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Feb 11, 2012 - 05:39pm PT
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Keith has been married to my mother for the last 24 years, and he is still alive, but hasn't been able to climb for the last couple of years. He'll be 88 in March, and would still LIKE to climb, but his body is just not up to it any more. I was lucky enough to go to Chamonix with my husband, Keith and my mother in 2002, and Keith was still climbing the Alps at that time. He was an amazing tour guide, able to name every peak and remember the number of times he climbed each....which were many, many times. He still asks about going to Joshua Tree to climb, but he's not up to it anymore, something he finds hard to accept.
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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Feb 11, 2012 - 05:51pm PT
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I used to see Keith up at Woodson all of the time in the late 70's and early '80's. Usually I was just by myself, soloing stuff. We'd typically talk for just a few minutes. I remember one time being up there with a girlfriend and her dog. We exchanged pleasantries with Keith and party and, while doing so, my girlfriend's dog bit one of Keith's younger, female companions(might have even been a daughter). Glad to hear he's still around.
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Ken
Trad climber
Arroyo Grande
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Feb 11, 2012 - 06:08pm PT
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Keith,
Ken from Woodson 1980 thru 1986 says hi.
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rlf
Trad climber
Josh, CA
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Feb 11, 2012 - 06:29pm PT
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Thanks for the update Debby. Keith is a great guy. Tell him hi from Hilde and Robert in Joshua Tree!!!!
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Debby Norwood
climber
San Diego
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Oct 20, 2012 - 03:08am PT
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I will pass along your salutations. I'm sure Keith will be glad to hear you've said hi. He really misses Joshua Tree...he talks about it often.
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Marlow
Sport climber
OSLO
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Oct 20, 2012 - 04:46am PT
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A postcard from the Chamonix area to Mr. Brueckner
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Largo
Sport climber
The Big Wide Open Face
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Oct 20, 2012 - 11:27am PT
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I remember Keith from when I was in high school and hitching up to Suicide Rock with Richard Harrison and seeing Keith on a weekday running the equivalent of a modern-day Mini-Traction rig. That is, he'd string a top rope and climb using I think a Gib's ascender or something like that. Keith did a lot of hard routes that way and I was always curious how it arrived at that system/method.
Wish I would have taken him on a few routes, but he was very much into his own thing it seemed. Hope his memories are good ones.
JL
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Eric Beck
Sport climber
Bishop, California
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Oct 20, 2012 - 02:01pm PT
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I climbed the Salathe with Keith I think in 1978. Morning on El Cap Spire and I am getting out the caffeine pills. Keith, in a very worried tone: "Eric, what are those pills?" I explained and he said "Do you have enough that I might have some?"
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Rick A
climber
Boulder, Colorado
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Oct 21, 2012 - 11:14pm PT
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I met Keith a few times at Woodson at the end of the 70's. Still have my red guidebook.
Best wishes to him and hope he gets out to JT yet!
Rick
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CHARLOTTE BIALEK
Boulder climber
New York
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Sep 21, 2014 - 06:00am PT
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I am one of Keith's 5 daughters - he also had two sons - and am very sad to say that he passed away peacefully Friday, September 19, 2014. Climbing was essential to him and some of my happiest memories are of Keithie hiking in the Sierra's with me racing along behind in bare feet - a thing he did not approve of but I survived blister free! - He introduced us to the joys of glaciers (and food!) in Chamonix and bouldering in Joshua Tree and at Mount Woodson. He wrote the saddest cards I have ever read while rained out in Norway and stuck in a tent for what seemed like weeks but he also wrote extensively detailed notes/books about climbs. I will have to reread them now. He was a physicist who loved problems something which made climbing perfect for him. He was also one of the founders of UCSD.
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Capt.
climber
some eastside hovel
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Sep 21, 2014 - 06:17am PT
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Sorry for your loss. Sounds like a great man. Condolences to all friends and family.
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mooser
Trad climber
seattle
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Sep 21, 2014 - 06:35am PT
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I used to run into Keith all the time at Woodson throughout the 70s and early 80s. Just a steady, consistently friendly guy.
I'm very sorry for your loss, Charlotte, and have nothing but very positive memories of him.
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skcreidc
Social climber
SD, CA
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Sep 21, 2014 - 06:47am PT
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I bumped into Keith a number of times up at Woodson in the early 80's. He was always friendly and very helpfull as I remember. He knew where all sorts of problems were...stuff I still can't find now. Just a great guy! Sorry to hear about his passing. My condolences to his frends and family.
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ground_up
Trad climber
mt. hood /baja
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Sep 21, 2014 - 08:16am PT
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Keith was a great guy . So sorry to hear of his passing.
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survival
Big Wall climber
Terrapin Station
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Sep 21, 2014 - 08:48am PT
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Wow, Keith sounds like a great climber that many here knew and admired.
Sorry to hear of his passing.
My condolences to his family and friends that clearly had a good man in their midst.
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Sep 21, 2014 - 09:47am PT
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Condolences and cheers, Charolette! Sounds like a life well lived.
I have that guidebook, well thumbed, in my collection, thanks Keith!
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Rick A
climber
Boulder, Colorado
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Sep 21, 2014 - 11:37am PT
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Very sorry for the loss of your father and my condolences to your family.
Rick Accomazzo
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rlf
Trad climber
Josh, CA
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Sep 21, 2014 - 11:54am PT
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Charolette,
I'm so sorry to hear of your fathers passing. I used to take him out climbing when his knees were starting to give him problems.
He was a wonderful, intelligent man. We had a common friend, Murray Gel Mann. Your dad and Murray worked on a project together years ago. I was fortunate enough to know the Gell Man's as a kid.
We used to chat about engineering and physics. He told me once that since he retired he never got to have these kinds conversations and that he enjoy our talks. I was flattered to say the least.
One day he commented to me on the way home from climbing that he was sorry he couldn't climb more because his knees were bothering him. My response, "Keith, if I can still go to the bathroom by myself at your age, I'll be happy."
He was 82.
My condolences
Robert & Hilde Fonda
Joshua Tree CA
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looking sketchy there...
Social climber
Lassitude 33
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Sep 21, 2014 - 12:02pm PT
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Sad news indeed to hear of Keith's passing. He was a regular fixture at Mt. Woodson in the 70s and 80s and we often ran into him at Josh and Idyllwild. He was very passionate about climbing and had an encyclopedic knowledge of routes, boulder problems and crux moves. Obviously a brilliant scientist, he seemed to approach climbing with a similar passion. Not mentioned above, but the climber in the cover art on his Woodson guide was none other than himself, and a good likeness. My sincere condolences to all of his family and friends.
Randy Vogel
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Gnome Ofthe Diabase
climber
Out Of Bed
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Sep 21, 2014 - 06:00pm PT
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Some one with Physics’ Chops please... Weigh in.... Edit ...oops.. Waited to long thanks... Ed H. can you say any more about K.B.’s contributions to Physics!?
For me I remember that he was Revered by all the diverse climbers at JTree who sand bagged me.
We met while I was out on an extended southern Cali road trip solo. I told him that I would be stuck near LA he had this thin red book he gave one to me. Older and wiser, he said I should go find a partner at Mount Woodson and come back to JTree.
RIP seems trite and not enough ...I hope That All his days were high quality..He was one of a kind.
A great one, that made it seem like I was not just wasting time if this was the Caliber of thinker that was to be found Climbing rocks. My father was impressed when I showed him that book. He really was impressive, a real well known scientist.
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Klimmer
Mountain climber
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Sep 21, 2014 - 06:15pm PT
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I'm truly, truly sad.
I'm so sorry for your family's loss.
Countless memories of bouldering with him up on Mt. Woodson in the late 70s. I would jam up there in my little Toyota truck after school (Poway HS) midweek and think I'd be the only one on the mountain. Nope. So many times Keith would be up there alone bouldering also and we would bump into one another and we would do some climbing together.
Never talked physics with him. What did I know? I was just a HS kid. But we talked climbing and he witnessed many of my early high-ball solos, when I thought no one was looking or even up there to watch. (Probably not the smartest thing to do. But I was young and invincible. Lol)
He had a great set-up for protecting his solo climbs.
I sure miss those great times.
Klimmer
Keith, and my close climbing buddy Tim, looking on. The tall lanky one with Army pants would be me. Someone remind me, the other really good climber and geologist from UCSD would be ...
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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Sep 21, 2014 - 06:17pm PT
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tx for that aip link, ed. i see that he trained at berkeley during the glory years--
i met keith back in socal in the early '80s-- never got to know him, really. like largo, i used to see him or sometimes chat with him out at suicide, where he was always running laps on routes with a jumar solo set-up, ignoring the snarky comments from some of the younger regulars.
i always thought it was really cool-- he seemed ancient, white hair and beard, but looking at his b-day i can see he wasn't much older than i am now. i was really impressed that he was climbing at what i thought of as a really advanced age, and that he was climbing in a style entirely at odds with what the young hotshots thought of as cool, and he didn't care.
very sorry to hear of his passing.
condolences to the family and close friends.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Sep 21, 2014 - 06:20pm PT
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Say, Ed, that was a fine pair of interviews, located at the bottom of the page on your second link.
I remember my father coming home from the office with 'homework' and having his slide rule handy. The math done for all of these old school physics were all accomplished using that method, one must assume.
That seems hard to believe in the age of itty-bitty technology. Ironically, the first pocket calculator that I used was from TEXAS Instruments.
Thanks for posting some good history. See you at Facelift.
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little Z
Trad climber
un cafetal en Naranjo
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Sep 21, 2014 - 06:57pm PT
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Sad to hear of his passing. Sounds like a life well lived. Condolences to his family and friends.
Reading his wikipedia page, it seems striking that there is no mention of his life as a climber, the importance of climbing in his life, etc. Obviously his major mark was made in physics, but after reading this thread it would seem an appropriate addition to his biography. Or would that seem trivial to the outside world?
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rlf
Trad climber
Josh, CA
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Sep 21, 2014 - 07:04pm PT
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For the most part it's important to us, we're climbers. He was an accomplished one at that. As a physicist he was up there with some of the greats. Believe me, I'm no physicist, just a dumb engineer.
Rest in piece my friend!
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Todd Gordon
Trad climber
Joshua Tree, Cal
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Sep 21, 2014 - 07:57pm PT
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Sorry to hear this.....rest in peace, Keith......we appreciate all he gave to the climbing community..
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Scole
Trad climber
Joshua Tree
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Sep 22, 2014 - 04:35am PT
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I am sorry to hear that Keith passed away. During the 80's we climbed together many times in JT and at Woodson. I got my first tour of Woodson from him. Rest in peace.
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allonom
Trad climber
Oxnard, CA
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Thank You. I am very sorry for your loss. I ran across Keith many times on Woodson and many times at UCSB. He is one of the truly humble persons I have encountered. Many physicists are climbers as that is the only way to free the mind. I feel honored to have walked among a GIANT!
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Jon Beck
Trad climber
Oceanside
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So sorry for your loss Charlotte.
I climbed frequently at Woodson from the mid 80s on. Never had the pleasure of meeting your father, but the guy was an icon. We all used his guidebook. Didn't know too much about him except what others told me, it was obvious that he was an amazing man.
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bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
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Used to see the Brueckster out at Woodson every damn time we went there -- which was a LOT. Not a part of my crew, or any crew for that matter, but no lie, he was about as hard-core a local as I ever met, or ever was. Pretty good climber as well. Great footwork. Knew how to sink a jam. Easy to talk to, no attitude, amazing given his background. Kinda hard to imagine Woodson without him, actually.
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Steve Belford
Sport climber
Poway, CA
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Keith was a cool guy. I would see him at Woodson in the early 80’s when I first discovered climbing. I met Keith during one of our first few trips to Woodson. He gave me one of those little red Mt. Woodson guidebooks that he made. That was a real stoker for me. I did not know that there was a guidebook for that area. I think that was my actually my first guidebook.
Those were some good times. I am sure that I had machine nuts with webbing threaded through them on my meager rack back then. Thankfully we survived those early years of climbing.
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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hey there say, charlotte... thank you for sharing your heart, as to your dad...
i am not a climber, but i love the greatoutdoors and whenever we got to yosemite, it was a treasure, to me and my brothers and family...
i learn so very much about climber adventures here and the men and woman folks, that make the find, or make, the routes or open paths for others, to love them as they did/and do...
thank you for sharing,about your dad's bit of history, so those that knew him, and me, as well, can appreciate him even deeper...
god bless and condolences, at this sad time of losing and missing him...
ps: i love the sad card, part--waiting for the climb-weather to open, and
i greatly loved the physicist part, and the love to solve problems on the rock/climb--just loved it!
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dee ee
Mountain climber
citizen of planet Earth
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Oct 11, 2014 - 09:22am PT
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Keith was all over the crags in the '70's and '80's and always friendly. I used to see him with Mike Paul regularly.
I'm sorry to hear of his passing.
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Keith Brueckner
preparing for an invited talk at the APS "April" meeting (that took place this year in late January in Washington DC, just last weekend) I was reviewing the history of Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) and ran across Keith Brueckner.
Brueckner had a rather far reaching career as a physicist. He was trained in theoretical physics, his Ph.D. advisor was Robert Serber at UC Berkeley in 1950, his thesis title: "Production of mesons by photons and nucleons."
Robert Serber was Oppenheimer's assistant at UCB prior to the Manhattan project, and a theorist in the Theory division at Los Alamos during the Manhattan project. I knew him briefly at Columbia U. when I was a student there. I mention that because Brueckner becomes engaged in inertial confinement fusion during his position as Vice President and Director of Research at the Institute for Defense Analyses, 1961-1962.
When the laser "discovery" was announced in July 1960, it occurred to many people working in fusion that it might be applicable as the radiation drive for inducing fusion in tiny pellets of deuterium-tritium fuel. The only problem was that the lasers had to be developed in power in order to be effective. This was of great interest to the USG, and particularly the services in the DOD, and Bruekner was the guy that heard the proposals from the "Radiation Laboratory" (later Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) to embark on a program of laser R&D specifically for ICF.
Also during that same period, Brueckner was hired at the new UC San Diego and was a founding member of the physics faculty, and an important factor in building that faculty into an excellent department.
He remained engaged in the laser development, and from 1968-1970 was the Vice President and Technical Director of KMS Industries.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KMS_Fusion
transcripts of an interview with him regarding this part of his career can be read following this link:
http://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/30599
He left KMS in 1974 and went on to other activities.
In physics he is known for work that came out of a collaboration with Murray Gell-Mann while they were associated with the RAND Corporation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_phase_approximation
http://authors.library.caltech.edu/3713/1/GELpr57b.pdf
It was noted in his obituaries that he was an avid rock climber... but it seems that his work as a physicist was largely unknown to those he climbed with...
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TomKimbrough
Social climber
Salt Lake City
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I will bet it was not unknown to Beck.
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Kalimon
Social climber
Ridgway, CO
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Thank you Ed for shining some additional light on this man's achievements . . . what an interesting fellow.
I spent my formative years in the Valley of the "Rad Lab", probably met you at Sunrise too.
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Eric Beck
Sport climber
Bishop, California
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Ed referred briefly to Keith's work on an early fusion project. He was the project director at the KMS laboratory in Ann Arbor. The idea was to confine deuterium in little glass bubbles and then zap it with a high powered laser. He also expressed the opinion that fusion will never reach break even in energy production.
Not mentioned here is Keith's swimming. He once offhandedly referred to a period when he was training for the nationals.
For a while he had a french girlfriend who was a superb cook.
Once several of us were hiking to a climb in Joshua Tree. Our group included a dog. I mentioned that I had heard that dogs like to be in the front of a group regardless of whether their human was up front. Keith was curious and proposed an experiment.
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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I followed KMS with great interest at the time as a layperson, had no idea a climber or such a renowned physicist was involved. Sounds like he was a prodigiously productive human being on all fronts.
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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You could tell he was really smart. I can hear his voice almost perfectly in my memory video. Wow, 90! Good for Keith!
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Gnome Ofthe Diabase
climber
Out Of Bed
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Feb 12, 2017 - 03:39pm PT
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That's the résumé !
A list of a great man's achievement (s)!
Hey ,
Thanx Ed H! ( did we miss your birthday? Have a happy!)
And thnx again KB's scientific contributions helped change our world.
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