| Notes |
- Descendants of Albert Andriessan person (12748.66342)
Gerrit Bratt -- Born at Los Angeles General Hospital (now called LA County, USC Medical Center), in 1933 to Marjorie (Hawkins-Bratt-McClaugherity) and Edward Bratt. Gary grew up with an older sister, Shirley, in various neighborhoods of Los Angeles California. Both his father and mother worked for the phone company. According to Shirley, when Gary was an infant, a care-giver had come to their home with a fever and given it to Gary. After this, Gary developed asthma and was never without an inhaler (there is no certainty that this fever had anything to do with his asthma). Given many of his mountaineering exploits, later in his life, it is a testament to his fortitude, that he was able to pursue these passions, despite this challenge.
In his youth, Gary developed a love of technology of the day -- he built radio sets and worked on cars. Of the two, he could work on one of them in his small bedroom at home. His sister, Shirley, was attending college at Brigham Young University, Provo (Utah) when Gary's father died suddenly at the age of 43. Even though Gary was in High School, Shirley returned home to help their mother, Marjorie keep house. His love of electronics became more focused when he was attending classes at UCLA. (It is said he suffered a crisis of purpose during his senior year and failed a class in his major, certainly due to lack of attention and focus, rather than ability). The next year, he completed his BS degree at University of Oregon, in Eugene. He later earned a masters degree in control systems engineering from California State University, Fullerton.
Following the completion of what would have been his senior year at UCLA, he married Morneen K Cutter in 1955. The two then spent a year in Eugene, Oregon. while Gary finished his degree. The couple then returned to Southern California and Gary took a job with General Dynamics / Convair, at their aerospace plant in Pomona (straddling the Corona Expressway and Mission Bl (Today, this is Hwy 71 and Mission)). He worked at this location for the remainder of his life. While most of his work was classified, he was primarily focused on flight control systems for GD's Standard Missile (I believe this was a non nuclear tactical weapon system). The GD Pomona division was also the developer of the PHALANX gun. A 20mm, radar controlled Gatling gun capable of firing 75 rounds per second. He would frequently talk about this system. I do not know if he worked on this system. While this was an intense time during the cold-war with Russia, Gary was always internally conflicted with his contributions to the military industrial complex.
In Southern California, Gary and Miki first took up residence in an apartment, in San Dimas. This is where they lived when their first child, a daughter Renata, was born in 1957. Shortly thereafter, they rented a house on Denison St. in Pomona, just blocks from the GD Pomona plant. This is where their two sons, Edward and David were both born. After plans for building a custom home in Claremont, near Claremont High School fell through, the found a mid-century modern home in the middle of a lemon and grapefruit grove just outside of, the then northern limits of, Claremont (this area was later annexed by the city). Late in the fall of 1965, they moved to this home, where they remained the rest of their lives.
Gary and Miki loved the outdoors. They had met while both were participating in outdoor activities with the Bruin Mountaineering Club. In 1953, Gary and friends from the club climbed Mt. Robson (12,972 ft) in the Rainbow Range of the Canadian Rockies (The highest peak in the Canadian Rockies). Wikipedia has the following quote about this peak, "Although the mountain is under 4,000 m (13,123 ft), there is no easy way to the summit and bad weather commonly rebuffs most summit attempts." This was a summer expedition that he spoke of to many climbing groups. This is described in "Trial by weather -- 1953 ascents of Mount Robson" by Don Claunch, The Mountaineer, p 20-23, Washington, Dec. 1953 [1]. He was accompanied by Jon Gardey, Jack Lasner, Norman Sanders, and the author, Don Claunch. Gery submitted a letter describing the climb, to the American Alpine Journal, which was published in 1954 [2].
As a family, we journeyed to many mountain and desert camping locations, throughout the western united states. For many years between the mid 1960's through the early 80's, we would return to Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park. Both Gary and Miki loved the local mountainscape and car-camping at the now closed Sierra Club campground, surrounding the natural soda springs. We weathered many afternoon thunderstorms in Parsons' Memorial Lodge. Gary climbed many of the peaks in that area, leading his sons David and Ed to the summit of Cathedral Peak (10,912 ft) in the mid 1970's. He attempted Mt. Lyell (13'120 ft) a few times, but was never able to summit. David did eventually summit this peak during a summer research expedition. Gary and David climbed Mt. Whitney (14,505 ft), via the exposed Mountaineer's route with a Sierra Club group in the early 1970's.
Another of Gary's passions was classical music. In the 1960's and early 1970's he and Miki held season tickets to the Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra, Thursday night, "Premiere," series. They would pile us all into the car and drop us with our Grandma Lenore (Speidel-Smith-Dawson) who lived on Shatto St. in Los Angeles, just blocks from the Dorthy Chandler Auditorium. They would attend the concert, return to Grandmas, pile us all back into the car and drive home. This love of music was conveyed to his daughter Renata who has become a very well respected musician in her own right. Learning Cello with classical training, she is now a very accomplished Jazz and Fiddle Cellist, ensemble player, and clinician. Gary played several instruments, including the Piano, Oboe and Recorder. Very few gatherings would occur without some type of singing or playing.
Throughout his life, he and Miki maintained close ties with many of their friends from the UCLA, in particular, former members of the Bruin Mountaineers from 1953-55. They continued to organize and join group camping trips, though our members dwindled to a more common few. They also hosted an annual holiday party. I'm told that originally it was a Halloween party, but it became a winter solstice party after they moved to Claremont. (Rumor is, they tried to cancel it after they relocated, but the club members, unbeknownst to the hosts, decided to converge anyway. They called it a surprise housewarming party.) This gathering continued as an annual event until Miki's passing in 1996. This evening f?te would frequently last well into the evening with many attendees bringing sleeping bags, pitching tents on the lawn (the house was located in a citrus orchard with no nearby neighbors), curling up on any flat surface of the house, or in their cars -- spilling into breakfast and maybe a mid-morning hike the following day.
In 1982, Gary was diagnosed with Leukemia. He had just begun chemotherapy treatment when he died, suddenly in Sept. of that year. He was 49 years old. His wife, Miki continued working in local politics and city organizations until she died in 1996. His mother, Marjorie died in 2006. His two sons share his passion for the outdoors. David continues to explore outdoor locations frequently and is an accomplished hang-glider (he earns a living as a carpenter). Ed sailed actively around Southern California and in the San Francisco Bay. Ed followed Gary's passion for electronics and has worked in technology since earning a BS. His sister Shirley still lives in Torrance California.
(Fathers day, 2016)
[1] https://www.mountaineers.org/about/history/the-mountaineer-annuals/indexes-annuals-maos/the-mountaineer-1953
[2] http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/12195419400/North-America-Canada-British-ColumbiaAscent-of-Mt-Robson
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1933 - 1982 (49 years)
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