George M. Bronenkant, 98, died Oct. 17, 2014, in Williamsburg, Va. He was born May 30, 1916, in Milwaukee, to the late George J. Bronenkant and Marie (Nowakowski) Bronenkant and spent his entire life in Wisconsin, moving to a Williamsburg, assisted living facility in 2009 to be near family.
He was of German and Polish ancestry and spent his early years on Milwaukee’s south side, graduating from South Division High School in 1934. After graduation he worked with his father in his father’s plumbing business on Forest Home Avenue and then enrolled in Milwaukee School of Engineering in January 1939. After completing 3 years toward an electrical engineering degree, he enlisted in the U.S. Army in October 1942, as there was only one other student left in his class by that time and they both enlisted at the same time. While at MSOE he was a member of the Delta Phi Zeta Fraternity.
While in the Army he was in the Signal Aircraft Warning Battalion and worked as a radar technician in New Guinea and the Philippines. While in the Philippines, his small group of 10 men was transported on a PT boat to Luzon and went behind enemy lines to maintain a small radar station near the coastline and to watch for enemy aircraft. After he left the Philippines he was sent to Korea for a short time and then to Fort Vancouver in Washington state where he helped carry luggage and belongings onboard ships for the Japanese Americans returning to Japan after being in the internment camps.
After the war, he was employed at Wisconsin Electrical Power Company and retired from there after 30 years in 1978. He was a 65-year member of IBEW Local #2150, as well as a member of the VFW Post 2874. He also was a long-time member of the South Division Old Timers and the Burlington Conservation Club, where he was involved in the program that raised the pheasant chicks and later released them in the wild.
In his younger years he avidly enjoyed the great outdoors and liked to hunt, fish and trap and maintain his 55 acres of woods and wetlands at Tichigan Lake. He spent many happy hours outdoors cutting firewood, making brush piles for small animals, cutting paths into the woods, snowplowing and cutting the grass for a very large yard.
Upon moving to Virginia, he was very happy to see his land sold to the state of Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to become part of the Tichigan Wildlife Area where it could be enjoyed by other hunters, fishermen and hikers.
Survivors include his daughters, Barbara Shappert (Steve), California, Bonnie Krochmal (Glenn), Williamsburg; grandson, Christopher Shappert, California; special niece, Susan Teschendorf, Florida; many nieces and nephews.
He was further preceded in death by his wife of 64 years, Laura A. (Kuehn); sisters, Ruth (Merchant) and Rosali (Meinersmann).
A memorial service is Thursday, Oct. 23, at 2 p.m., at Nelsen Funeral Home, 3785 Strawberry Plains Road, Williamsburg. Burial will be in Cedar Grove Cemetery, Williamsburg.
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