Bruce Cornwell was born in Rockford, Illinois, where he spent boyhood evenings listening to his crystal set radio. After graduating from high school he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served as an electronic technician's mate. He spent the World War II years setting up radio transmitters on Pacific islands just behind the advancing front.
Bruce stayed on in Japan after the war, and traveled to China before returning home to the midwest. He attended the University of Wisconsin at Madison where he earned a degree in geography. His work at WHA-TV first introduced him to the craft of film animation.
Bruce and Kay met by chance at a church in Madison one Sunday morning. They were married in April of 1956 and made their home in a nineteenth century stone house in Prairie du Sac, on the Wisconsin River, where they raised two sons, Eric and Scott. Bruce and his father, Augustus Booker Cornwell, designed and built an adjoining carriage house which included a garage on the ground level and an animation studio upstairs.
From the late 1950s until the mid 1980s the Cornwells produced dozens of short films on topics in mathematics, geometry, calculus and physics, pioneering the use of computer graphics in educational films. The Academic Film Archive web site has a short biography and filmography of their work, and offers two of their films for online viewing.
In 1968 the family relocated to Brooklyn Heights and continued producing films there. To augment their income from filmmaking, Bruce and Kay both took on full-time jobs.
Bruce taught at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, The New School, and The School of Visual Arts. He applied his programming and cartographic knowledge in positions with the NYC Department of City Planning and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
When their church installed a new hybrid electronic/pipe organ, Bruce's skills in electronics and mechanical engineering earned him the position of organ curator for the church, despite the fact that he was the only non-musical member of his own family.
Bruce passed away at home on January 26, 2012.
Bruce stayed on in Japan after the war, and traveled to China before returning home to the midwest. He attended the University of Wisconsin at Madison where he earned a degree in geography. His work at WHA-TV first introduced him to the craft of film animation.
Bruce and Kay met by chance at a church in Madison one Sunday morning. They were married in April of 1956 and made their home in a nineteenth century stone house in Prairie du Sac, on the Wisconsin River, where they raised two sons, Eric and Scott. Bruce and his father, Augustus Booker Cornwell, designed and built an adjoining carriage house which included a garage on the ground level and an animation studio upstairs.
From the late 1950s until the mid 1980s the Cornwells produced dozens of short films on topics in mathematics, geometry, calculus and physics, pioneering the use of computer graphics in educational films. The Academic Film Archive web site has a short biography and filmography of their work, and offers two of their films for online viewing.
In 1968 the family relocated to Brooklyn Heights and continued producing films there. To augment their income from filmmaking, Bruce and Kay both took on full-time jobs.
Bruce taught at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, The New School, and The School of Visual Arts. He applied his programming and cartographic knowledge in positions with the NYC Department of City Planning and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
When their church installed a new hybrid electronic/pipe organ, Bruce's skills in electronics and mechanical engineering earned him the position of organ curator for the church, despite the fact that he was the only non-musical member of his own family.
Bruce passed away at home on January 26, 2012.
Bruce Cornwell was born in Rockford, Illinois, where he spent boyhood evenings listening to his crystal set radio. After graduating from high school he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served as an electronic technician's mate. He spent the World War II years setting up radio transmitters on Pacific islands just behind the advancing front.
Bruce stayed on in Japan after the war, and traveled to China before returning home to the midwest. He attended the University of Wisconsin at Madison where he earned a degree in geography. His work at WHA-TV first introduced him to the craft of film animation.
Bruce and Kay met by chance at a church in Madison one Sunday morning. They were married in April of 1956 and made their home in a nineteenth century stone house in Prairie du Sac, on the Wisconsin River, where they raised two sons, Eric and Scott. Bruce and his father, Augustus Booker Cornwell, designed and built an adjoining carriage house which included a garage on the ground level and an animation studio upstairs.
From the late 1950s until the mid 1980s the Cornwells produced dozens of short films on topics in mathematics, geometry, calculus and physics, pioneering the use of computer graphics in educational films. The Academic Film Archive web site has a short biography and filmography of their work, and offers two of their films for online viewing.
In 1968 the family relocated to Brooklyn Heights and continued producing films there. To augment their income from filmmaking, Bruce and Kay both took on full-time jobs.
Bruce taught at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, The New School, and The School of Visual Arts. He applied his programming and cartographic knowledge in positions with the NYC Department of City Planning and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
When their church installed a new hybrid electronic/pipe organ, Bruce's skills in electronics and mechanical engineering earned him the position of organ curator for the church, despite the fact that he was the only non-musical member of his own family.
Bruce passed away at home on January 26, 2012.
Bruce stayed on in Japan after the war, and traveled to China before returning home to the midwest. He attended the University of Wisconsin at Madison where he earned a degree in geography. His work at WHA-TV first introduced him to the craft of film animation.
Bruce and Kay met by chance at a church in Madison one Sunday morning. They were married in April of 1956 and made their home in a nineteenth century stone house in Prairie du Sac, on the Wisconsin River, where they raised two sons, Eric and Scott. Bruce and his father, Augustus Booker Cornwell, designed and built an adjoining carriage house which included a garage on the ground level and an animation studio upstairs.
From the late 1950s until the mid 1980s the Cornwells produced dozens of short films on topics in mathematics, geometry, calculus and physics, pioneering the use of computer graphics in educational films. The Academic Film Archive web site has a short biography and filmography of their work, and offers two of their films for online viewing.
In 1968 the family relocated to Brooklyn Heights and continued producing films there. To augment their income from filmmaking, Bruce and Kay both took on full-time jobs.
Bruce taught at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, The New School, and The School of Visual Arts. He applied his programming and cartographic knowledge in positions with the NYC Department of City Planning and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
When their church installed a new hybrid electronic/pipe organ, Bruce's skills in electronics and mechanical engineering earned him the position of organ curator for the church, despite the fact that he was the only non-musical member of his own family.
Bruce passed away at home on January 26, 2012.
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