Alfred Gruenke, P.E., was born on February 27, When he was eight years old his family emigrated from Germany to the United States of America, to a chicken farm near Tallahassee, Florida. Two years later they moved to Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Al attended public schools, graduating from Dieruff High School in 1960. He aspired to be an Electrical Engineer but had no prospects of college. He was involved with amateur radio and electronics for years, so he attended a “Thirteenth Year of High School,” a one-year course in Electronics Technology offered by the Allentown School District. This was a predecessor to community colleges.

In 1961, at the age of 18, Al and his father, Emil Gruenke, became citizens of the United States of America. Their photo was featured in The Morning Call.

Upon graduation, Al was hired by Air Products as an Electronic Technician. He was accepted and attended one semester at Lafayette College Evening School in its Electrical
Engineering program.

Shortly thereafter, Al obtained employment with IBM Corporation, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, as a Customer Engineer. He repaired IBM Unit Record (punched cards) equipment, teleprocessing equipment, and computers for various businesses in the Lehigh Valley area for eight years.

Al married Joan Padus in 1963, who convinced him to return to Lafayette College and obtain a full engineering degree, going to school in the evening while working full-time for IBM. He graduated in 1972 with a BSEE. He was inducted into Eta Kappa Nu, the Honor Society of the IEEE.

In 1970 Al changed careers, joining Keystone Portland Cement in Bath, PA, as the Plant Electrical Engineer. Keystone was challenging since the equipment covered a period from the 1920’s to the 1970’s. This was the beginning of his life-long involvement with the cement industry.

In 1981 Al joined Fuller Company, Bethlehem, as a Senior Field Engineer. Shortly thereafter Fuller was acquired by FL Smidth, a Danish company. His assignments were to check out electrical equipment at customers’ cement plants around the world to ensure that they were wired and working correctly. His responsibilities were anything with electrical wires, from thermocouples to control wiring to variable speed drives to 4,000 kW motors with wound rotor liquid secondaries to 5,000 hp synchronous motors to 10,000 kW 230,000 VAC substations, and everything in between. Cultural differences were sometimes more challenging than the equipment!

Living conditions were often in remote Third World locations. These assignments ometimes were years in duration. The most memorable was being in Egypt on 9/11/2001.

Al sometimes went on short “troubleshooting” assignments, as needed. For a couple of years, he was the “Ball Mill Doctor,” troubleshooting and correcting ball mill grinding issues. He was Site Manager and Commissioning Manager at times. Subsequent assignments for FL Smidth included Manager of Field Services for a subsidiary, FFE Minerals, and General Manager of Field Installations for FL Smidth Cement Division.
Al is a certified MSHA safety instructor, an activity he occasionally still does for FL Smidth.

In the 1990’s Al decided to become a licensed Professional Engineer in Pennsylvania. This
involved going back to school one evening a week for six months at Penn State Extension,
Fogelsville, to prepare for the EIT test. He passed the EIT in 1994, and the PE test in 1995.

FL Smidth had offices in Bethlehem, Salt Lake City, Toronto, Mexico City, Sao Paolo, Brazil, and Santiago, Chile. Al wrote/edited a periodic newsletter with input from the Field Service
Departments of these entities, establishing a feeling of unity among such diverse groups.

Shortly after joining FFE Minerals at the age of 61Al enrolled in DeSales University, Center Valley, Pennsylvania, Evening Sessions, for an MBA. He obtained this degree when he was 66. The degree gave Al a better understanding of corporate finance and made him a better manager to the Field Engineers reporting to him.

During his 31 years of employment with Fuller/FL Smidth Al’s “Claim to Fame” was having been to fifty countries, around the world, three times, being able to say “Thank you” in ten languages, order beer in seven, and cuss respectfully in four!

Since his retirement at age 69 Al has spent a lot of time and effort serving the engineering
community and the community at large, both present and future. He served as Director of the Lehigh Valley Chapter, Pennsylvania Society of Professional Engineers, four years as Vice President and two years as President. He was a fundraiser for Math Counts and the Chapter Scholarship Fund for many years and wrote/edited the “Valley Engineer Newsletter” for twelve years. He also wrote articles on chapter tours. Al added interest by adding stories of his many assignments, from India to Indiana to Indonesia, and points in between. During the Covid crisis Al wrote a series of articles on 19th-century Lehigh Valley industries including grist mills, lime kilns, and iron mills.

Of particular interest to Al are future engineers. In that vein he has given a presentation, “Who Wants to Be an Engineer,” to middle school students in Allentown and Wissahickon school districts. Al explains the beauties of engineering, its contribution to society, and how to become an engineer. It was well received.

The Lehigh Valley Chapter, Pennsylvania Society of Professional Engineers recognized him with two Truman Yeager awards. The Pennsylvania Society of Professional Engineers presented him with two awards: the Communications Award for his newsletter and a Chapter Special Projects Award for his “Who Wants to Be an Engineer” presentations. Al has also given presentations entitled “Engineering for Safety” at several PSPE Annual Conferences, for PDH’s.

Recently Al became vice president of the Pennsylvania Engineering Foundation, which gives numerous scholarships to Pennsylvania legal residents attending a Pennsylvania engineering college.

Al’s long-time hobby is amateur radio. He has an FCC Extra Class license, call KB3JPP. Certificates include DXCC, WAC, DXCC-QRP, WAC-QRP, and multiple Thousand Miles per Watt awards. His best QRP (low power) QSO (contact) is a 650-mile contact using a 400-mW transceiver he built into an Altoid container.

Al lives in Wescosville with his wife of 61 years, Joan. They have four children, eleven
grandchildren, and one great-grandson. He enjoys his family, amateur radio, gardening, and golf. To Alfred, engineering is not merely a profession; it is life.