-- Published in The Medford Mail Tribune, Medford, Oregon, 01/22/2017:

Barbara Irene Lett was the only child of Lloyd Henry Lett and Irene Needs Lett. She was born in Denver, Colorado and the family moved to Pueblo, Colo, when she was very young.

She graduated from high school with honors and a scholarship to Colorado College in Colorado Springs. She was a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, and was selected in her freshman year as Miss Colorado College.

Summer jobs included clearing tables at a local café and shelving books at the city library, as well as secretary at an insurance office. One adventurous summer was spent working in the photo shop at Yellowstone Falls in Yellowstone National Park. She majored in English and graduated Phi Beta Kappa.

After college, she went exploring, taking a job at the University of New Mexico in the placement office, and advancing quickly to Director of Placement. It was during this time that Robert Brugger, who had also attended Colorado College, was working at White Sands, N.M., and he would hitchhike to see Barbara in Albuquerque when he was able to get away.

Barbara finally said yes to Bob, and they were married in Pueblo in 1953. They relocated to Houston while Bob completed his PhD at Rice University. While there, Barbara worked in the placement office at the University of Houston, and as a training instructor at Foley's Department Store. After Houston they relocated again, this time to Idaho Falls, Idaho, where Bob worked for the Atomic Energy Commission.

During this time, they adopted two children, James Robert and Carolyn Irene. In 1962 Bob took a sabbatical at Oxford in England and the family spent one year across the pond, during which England experienced it's worst winter since the 1700's! Barbara always had a great love for anything British after that adventure!

In 1974, they moved to Columbia, Missouri, where Bob worked at the University of Missouri research reactor, and Barbara worked on getting her Masters in Library Science.

Barbara had a great concern for people who were in vulnerable situations or needed assistance, and while in Columbia she helped several refugee families from Vietnam and Cambodia get settled in the U.S., and has kept in touch with them over the years, becoming their "western" Mom.

Barbara also helped to start and maintain several libraries during her lifetime, including the one at Mountain Meadows in Ashland, where she and Bob moved after retirement, and where they have spent many happy years.

Her life was also shaped and defined by the many friendships she and Bob have developed and maintained over the years.

She is survived by her husband, Robert Melvin Brugger, her daughter, Carolyn Jost, grandsons Jerry Brugger and Andrew Albright, and granddaughter, Katelyn Blakemore-Hebert.

Barbara was preceded in death by her son, James Robert.
A celebration of Barbara's life will be held at 11:00 a.m, Saturday, February 4, 2017, in the Mt. Ashland room at Mountain Meadows.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a memorial contribution to the Parkinson's Disease Foundation at support.pdf.org/bbrugger.