Everett Hines DeBruhl

Everett Hines De Bruhl

Obituary  March 16, 2010

Everett Hines (Bud) DeBruhl, 88, died on March 16, 2010, on his farm near Lula, after a long illness. A seventh-generation North Carolinian, DeBruhl was born Jan. 26, 1922, in Rocky Mount, N.C., the son of Arthur M. and Janie Wright DeBruhl. The family returned to Buncombe County soon after.

He graduated from Woodfin High School in 1937, and attended the Farm School, now Warren Wilson College. He joined the U.S. Navy in 1939, and served aboard the battleship Mississippi in the North Atlantic and the North and South Pacific in World War II. In 1943, he volunteered to join an ultra-secret naval communications group, the so-called "Rice Paddy Navy," which, aided by Chinese guerrillas, set up sites behind the lines in Japanese-occupied China to provide crucial intelligence to the Pacific Fleet and the Air Forces. He was awarded the Bronze Star for heroic service.

De Bruhl left the Navy in 1946, and joined the IBM corporation, where he helped develop the early generation of computers. He was recalled to the Navy during the Korean War. He later was an executive with RCA, the Burroughs Corporation and Electrodata before forming his own companies, which included Tec America and Electronic Checkout Systems. In retirement, he was equally successful in his agricultural pursuits. He was a life-long member of Blackmer Masonic Lodge, Weaverville, N.C.

Everett DeBruhl is survived by his wife of 42 years, Mary Jo Jackson DeBruhl; a daughter from a previous marriage, Linda DeBruhl McLaughlin; two granddaughters; and six brothers and sisters, Rosa Lee DeBruhl O'Donnell, Rita DeBruhl Haynes, Lloyd George DeBruhl, Norman Hoyle DeBruhl, A. Marshall DeBruhl and Anna Kathryn DeBruhl Derossett. Two other sisters, Deane De Bruhl Blankenship and Josephine DeBruhl Parker, predeceased him.

There will be a visitation at William R. Strickland & Sons Funeral Directors in Clermont, March 17, from 6 to 8 p.m. Burial, at Ashelawn Gardens of Memory, Asheville, N.C., will be private.

Strickland Funeral Home, Clermont

Everett was descended from Michael Samuel and Margaret DeBruhl in the
following order:

Michael Samuel
Edward Cornwallis
William Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
William Leroi
Arthur Marvin
Everett Hines