An individual of many talents, Otto Brue (1902-1976) is best known in Ames for his quality-built homes in the 1940s.  The photo above is from Otto's 1936 certificate of U.S. citizenship.

Otto Brue was born on Bru Island, off the coast of Stavanger, Norway on April 26, 1902.  Otto was the oldest of four children born to Jacob Bru and Amelia (Vareberg) Bru.

Amelia died in 1910 leaving the family in the hands of relatives and friends as their father was a commercial sea captain, away on voyages for extended periods.  He lived beyond 100 years of age.

As a young man Otto would work as a seaman accompanying his father at sea during the summer. Regularly they would sail to Copenhagen, Denmark to have commodities boarded for delivery north, past the Arctic Circle, into the Barents Sea to Murmansk, Russia.  There they would load wheat for return delivery to Scandinavia.  Otto recalls that Copenhagen was a wonderful, clean, cosmopolitan city, while Murmansk, during Tsarist, revolutionary and Bolshevik times, was not a desirable port-of-call.

Otto was educated on the mainland in Stavanger, majoring in marine architecture.  - View Otto's report card at age 13. -

He went on to teach English and mathematics at the University of Stavanger (Universitetet i Stavanger).