Longtime Waupaca Foundry president and chief executive Donald G. Brunner has died, aged 81. He served as president of the gray and ductile iron foundry for 25 years, until his retirement in 1997. He had been an active member of the Cast Metals Foundation, the Foundry Educational Foundation, and the American Foundry Society, of which he served as a chapter president and a director.

Brunner was a U.S. Army veteran with service in World War II, and mechanical engineering graduate of Marquette University. After an early career at Brillon Iron Works, he joined Waupaca Foundry in Waupaca, WI, as its plant manager, in 1955. He was named president and CEO of the company in 1972.

Brunner was presented the American Foundry Society's Gold Medal Award in 1993, as well as the Iron Casting Society's Gold Medal in 1986.

Each year, the FEF awards a scholarship in his name to one of its student members entering their final year of collegiate study. The Donald G. Brunner Scholarship Fund was established by the Foundation in 1997, from a grant contributed in his name by Waupaca Foundry.

A funeral service will be held Friday, September 14, at the Trinity Lutheran Church in Waupaca, at 11 a.m.  A private burial is planned.  In lieu of flowers, the Brunner family requests donations to the FEF for the Donald G. Brunner Scholarship Fund; or, the National Parkinson Foundation; or the Trinity Lutheran Church Endowment Fund.