John William Bruins

Born in 1911 to William John Bruins and Margaretha (Maggie) Mouw Bruins, Bill was the oldest of his family. The family moved to various farms in Wisconsin, Minnesota and eventually settled in Iowa, where he was followed by 11 siblings, 10 of whom made it to adulthood.
Bill was educated in Iowa public schools and had a knack for practical engineering, but had the misfortune of graduating just as the stock market crash began the Great Depression. He had always worked on the family farm, and hired himself out as a hired man working on other farms and dairies in places as distant as new Jersey and Colorado. During this time he literally "rode the rails", hitching rides on freight trains to move between areas, looking for work.He eventually ended back in Iowa, working as a "printer's devil" in a printshop, assembling Aeromotor windmills used to pump water, and as a mechanic in a local implement shop. Along the way he picked up Model T and Model A cars and fixed them up for his use, a skill he would put to good use.
He met Tillie Goslinga in 1938 at a church function, and they were married in July of 1940. They settled in at a rented room in Sioux Center, and their first two children, Clarine and William John, were born there. Finding continuous work supporting the war effort and local housing was still a problem in the early years of the war, so the family packed up in November of 1942 and headed to Long Beach, California, where a number of Bill's siblings had settled and found work at the shipyards and various aircraft companies, Douglas in particular.
Here he found work at the Douglas plant at Long Beach airport, working at first on the flightline, reloading oxygen tanks and taxiing B-17s as needed, and eventually as an instructor at the Army Air Force Training School on the plant premises, training ground crew personnel in the maintenance and repair of the large radial engines used on the B-17.
Here the family would stay, buying a house in North Long Beach on Platt Street near Long Beach Boulevard. After the war, Bill worked for the City of Long Beach performing maintenance and repair on their vehicles, primarily garbage trucks as they were known then, but moving on to civilian mechanic jobs at Van Leeuwen's Garage in Artesia, 76 Super Service in Bellflower, Nance Chevrolet in Bellflower, Harbor Chevrolet in Long Beach, and finally Cormier Chevrolet located first in downtown Long Beach then in Carson/Wilmington, where he stayed until his retirement in 1975.
Two more children, Margaret Jane " Peggy" and John Edward, were born here in California, and a larger house was desired. With the thought of eventually building their own house, they "temporarily" bought and moved to a house in what would become Lakewood on Whitewood Street, and lived there for the next 50+ years.
Bill and Tillie joined Bethel Reformed Church in Bellflower soon after moving to southern California as much of their families were there. They remained active members there, Tillie teaching preschool children in Sunday School, and Bill active in the adult choir, and both in the senior groups in their later years. They remained active there until their respective deaths.
Bill was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1985, which had spread to his lungs and bones. He was in hospice at hte Whitewood home until his passing on 14 July, 1987. He is buried in Artesia Cemetery in Cerritos/Artesia.