September 17, 2010

FOX RIVER GROVE – Ken Bruhn was always everywhere. As principal at Crystal Lake South High School, he made it to band concerts, volleyball games and basketball tournaments.

“The guy was at absolutely everything,” said Steven Olson, a Crystal Lake South teacher hired by Bruhn in 1985. “He was always physically present.”

It’s that dedication that stands out to people who knew Bruhn, and what made him so beloved.

Bruhn died Wednesday at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago after complications from open heart surgery. He was 77.

Bruhn, of Fox River Grove, started at Crystal Lake District 155 on July 1, 1971, as assistant principal at Cary-Grove High School. He served in that role until 1978, when he became the first principal at Crystal Lake South High School.

He was there for 13 years before retiring in 1991.

Gary Collins, who taught at South under Bruhn when the school first opened, said Bruhn set the tone for the place.

“We were all pretty much new, ... and he just provided a tremendous amount of leadership, and through all that was a great friend,” Collins said. “He’s going to be missed by a lot of people. He influenced a lot of people in his life.

In fact, Bruhn was so influential at Crystal Lake South that the football field was named after him. His wife, Carol Lou Bruhn, said he was surprised with the honor during a graduation ceremony.

“He was stunned,” she said. “The kids were screaming and yelling, and all he kept doing was bowing and bowing and saying, ‘Thank you.’ ”

She added that he never bragged about it.

“People would stop him and say, ‘That football field is named after [you],’ ” Carol Lou Bruhn said. “And he was just so shy about it. He was humble.”

Before joining District 155, he was a junior high English teacher from 1959-60 and chief administrator at Fox River Grove District 3 from 1960-71. He also taught in Ohio when he first started in the profession and served in the Army from 1956-57.

“He was so well-liked,” his wife said. “He was loving, compassionate, and enjoyed seeing his former students. ... They would stop him in the store, talk to him and come and see him. He always had time for his students.”

Olson said he felt blessed to have worked with Bruhn.

“We all have different people in our lives that touch us,” he said. “And certainly his impact on who I am today is a real testament to who he was as a person and I feel very fortunate to have known Bruhn.”