Ronnie moved to Dallas from a small town in Nebraska and joined TI in March 1960 as a secretary. TI helped pay her tuition over the years as she earned a degree in Math in 1968. She took one FORTRAN class at UTA and became fascinated with the power of computers. Her manager at that time was a Division Controller who sent her to IBM for a two-week class and then transferred her into a programming section in TI. She gradually worked her way up to supervisor and then manager of the defense business financial computer systems. She was elected Member, Group Technical Staff in 1985. She transferred to Contracts and Estimating in DSEG in 1986 to manage their programming staff as TI bid on government business and the associated contracts. She retired in 1991 but contracted back to TI to build a cylinder tracking system and stop a $300K/year loss. This part-time, six month job turned into six years until the business was finally sold to Air Liquide and she could retire permanently. In 2000 she became a charter member in establishing TIAA because she believed in the proven value of social interaction on retirees' health. She married Jerry Brandenburg in 1966 and has two daughters, one son (deceased), five step-daughters and one step-son. She and Jerry became fully accredited American Orchid Society (AOS) judges in 1980, have judged orchid shows all over the world and were recently elevated by the AOS to Judge Emeritus.
Ronnie Brandenburg
