John R. Bracken papers

John Robert Bracken was born on August 25, 1891 in Duquesne, Pennsylvania. Reared in McKeesport, he was among the Pennsylvania State College's first undergraduates in landscape architecture. After receiving his Bachelor of Science degree in 1914, he was employed as a landscape architect in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. During World War I he served in the U.S. Army Coast Artillery. In 1924, John R. Bracken was named to the agricultural extension staff at Pennsylvania State College, becoming a professor of landscape architecture in 1926. During his years at the Penn State, he received his Masters of Landscape Design degree in 1933 and his Ph.D. degree in 1945, both from the University of Michigan. In 1939 to 1940, he was granted a leave of absence to serve as consulting architect for the General State Authority of Pennsylvania, directing a staff of landscape architects, many of whom were his own former graduates, in the planning of the land areas at forty-three Pennsylvania institutions, including the Laurelton State Village, Harrisburg State Hospital, Torrance State Hospital, various State Universities (Bloomsburg, Mansfield, California, etc.) and others. One of his most important local contributions was the designing of the State College High School Memorial Stadium. He also served in State College for several years as a member of the Shade Tree Commission. In 1950 he was made a director of the National Council on State Parks. On October 1, 1957, he retired from Penn State University having served as Head of the Landscape Architecture department program since 1926. After his retirement, he served until 1962 as Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Wisconsin. In 1971, on his 80th birthday, he was honored by the Pennsylvania State University's Department of Landscape Architecture and was presented with a plaque in recognition of his long service. Professor Emeritus of the Department of Landscape Architecture John Bracken died on August 23, 1979, in Lewistown, Pennsylvania.