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IN MEMORIAM: Francis Allen Brogan, born May 3, 1925, died August 16, 2006.
During most of his career at Lockheed Missiles & Space Company, Frank worked with Bo Almroth on the development of the STAGS computer program. Much of the numerical "guts" of the STAGS program were created by Frank. Frank and Bo were a great team. After Bo's death in 1983, Frank and Dr. Charles C. Rankin continued with exceptional teamwork devoted to the further development of STAGS.
Frank was born May 3, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska, the second of three children of Maurice Perley and Marjorie Frances (Rutter) Brogan. His father, a consulting engineer, was also a Nebraska native. His paternal grandfather, Francis Albert Brogan, was a prominent Omaha attorney. His maternal grandfather, Thomas Nixon Rutter, managed an investment brokerage in Omaha.
Frank attended Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, as did his younger sister, Maude, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1949 with degrees in mathematics and music. After college, he became an officer in the U.S. Navy, studying Chinese at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, and serving for eight years as a translator, stationed in the Pacific and in Washington D. C. He then came to Berkeley to earn a graduate degree in mathematics, where he became a member of the Berkeley Chamber Singers.
Frank was an avid hiker, mainly in the Sierra Nevada, where he, Bo Almroth and others, many from the Lockheed Palo Alto Applied Mechanics Department, would trek for miles with heavy back-packs. At camp in the evenings Frank would sometimes organize singing sessions. Rounds such as "Dona Nobis Pacem" would echo from the peaks across a lake-side campsite in the clear, still Sierra night.
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