Local Engineering Pioneer Passes Away

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A Pickaway County resident with area engineering claims to fame, has passed away at age 90.

Carl Peter DeBruin died November 6th.

Born in Wisconsin, Carl came to central Ohio after being stationed at Rickenbacker Air Force Base in Lockbourne, following a tour of duty in Alaska during the Korean War.

Carl was an engineer at Container Corp for several years and also was the lead engineer at Circleville Metalworks and at one point was part of a startup sheet metal shop. He also did work designing and building the Portsmouth nuclear reactor plant and taught air conditioning technicians. Carl has several interesting engineering claims to fame. He invented the black liquor digester paper process. Additionally, he designed the super cheese shredder at Totino’s pizza which literally shreds tons of mozzarella an hour as well as the original equipment to make Totino’s pizza rolls. Carl also designed the updated pan for the giant pumpkin pie for the Circleville Pumpkin Show and helped engineer the Pumpkin water tower.

After retiring from his technical career, he had a second career from 1993 until 2015 in her ceramic shop taking over mold and firing production while Madge taught classes. At one point their shop had over 15,000 different mold designs.

Friends may call from 4pm-7pm Friday November 12th at the Wellman Funeral Home, Circleville. Mass of Christian Burial will be 10am Saturday November 13th, 2021 at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church. Burial will be in St. Joseph’s Catholic Cemetery.