Alumni in the Field
Frank Brull, MSW’51
Frank Brull, MSW’51, hasn’t been back to Penn since he graduated 56 years ago, but he talks about the importance of his Penn social work education as if he earned his degree yesterday. Over the course of a career that included school social work, private practice, and publishing a host of articles, Mr. Brull’s social work skills were always central to his work.
After graduating, Mr. Brull spent a short amount of time in Australia, where he accepted a job at the Children’s Court Clinic in Melbourne. Upon returning to the United States, he decided not to remain on the East Coast and moved to Minneapolis. (He points out that the move enabled him to get away from his foster home situation and offered a fresh start). He took a job at the Children’s Bureau, but it was only a short amount of time until he was fired. Looking back on it, Mr. Brull is able to laugh at his career’s rocky start, and explains that he “deserved to be fired.”
But – as fate would have it – his search for a new job led him to apply for a position at New Trier Township High School in Winnetka-Northfield, IL, where the superintendent was a Penn graduate. He got the position and worked as a school social worker until the district expanded and opened another school. At that time, he became the head of the social work department at the new school. Here, he supervised a full staff and had the opportunity to build the department, focusing on the importance of autonomy and developing a psychotherapy-based practice.
After retiring from thirty years in school social work, he spent his summers working for the VA and for a Hull House children’s summer camp. He also established a private practice. Throughout his career, he accepted speaking engagements whenever he could, and published in a number of places. He considers a paper he wrote on the translation of Sigmund Freud to be one his most significant published pieces.
Throughout the course of his career, Mr. Brull was engaged in the community in a number of ways. His involvement ranged from being a part of the New Trier Township Welfare Committee, to serving as president of the Glenview Human Relations Court, to participating in the IL branch of the NASW board.
Mr. Brull is quick to acknowledge that his time at Penn provided much more than professional development. He recognizes that professors like Rosa Wessel had a profound impact on his personal growth as well, and he credits her with “really turning him around and helping him make peace with his parents.”
Now that he is retired, he has a new understanding of a phrase that one of his Penn professors often used to refer to the need for ongoing intellectual stimulation: “social workers die from the neck up.” As a result, he keeps his mind active by continuing to do lots of reading – specifically the New York Times. He concedes that he doesn’t read as much social work material as he should, but when asked if he has any advice for retired social workers who want to stay up to date in the field, he suggests subscribing to one of the social work journals. Mr. Brull continues to reside in Chicago and spends the winter in Palm Springs, CA.
As we celebrate Professional Social Work Month, stories like Mr. Brull’s remind us of a social work education’s lifelong impact. Congratulations to all of Penn’s social work alumni for making a difference every day.