Irene Simpson Van Brunt attended Wellesley College in Massachusetts but graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. There she became a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma.
She married Winslow M. Van Brunt, Jr., a Phi Kappa Psi, who also graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He had been a busboy at the Kappa house.
Their engagement was announced in July of 1924. Their wedding was on the night of the Ak-Sar-Ben electrical parade. A newspaper article about the wedding had the title “Will Wed Night of Electric Parade,” and noted that friends of the couple would have to “decide between seeing her married and witnessing the Ak-Sar-Ben electrical parade.” (Ak-Sar-Ben is Nebraska spelled backwards and there is a story to it.)
The Van Brunts were married at 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, October 1, 1924, at the Simpson family home.
Their family grew to include three daughters, one of whom was intellectually disabled, and a son. Van Brunt served as president of the Omaha Wellesley Club and as a director of the University of Nebraska Alumni Association. Moreover, she was dedicated in her service to P.E.O. at the local, state and international levels.
She was President of Supreme Chapter of the P.E.O. Sisterhood from 1964-1965. It is a two-year term, but she assumed the presidency when Uretta A. Hinkhouse died during her term of office. She had to pivot quite quickly and all the plans she had for her presidency were set aside so she could finish out Hinkhouse’s term.
The Van Brunts were friends with the parents of Warren Buffett. Although Winslow Van Brunt was an engineer by training, he switched careers and sold insurance. Buffett became one of his customers.
The Van Brunt’s daughter Beth and Buffett’s future wife Susan Thompson were also school mates at Central High School. Beth encouraged her parents to invest with Buffett at the very start of Buffett’s career. At her first suggestion, her father told her that Buffett would not invest less than $10,000 and that he did not have $10,000 at his quick disposal. But a few years later, Winslow Van Brunt had made an investment with Buffett.
Their initial investment was later rolled into Berkshire Hathaway stock. When Winslow Van Brunt died in 1981, it was a successful investment, and Irene endowed an engineering scholarship in his memory at their alma mater. The University Bell was given to the Nebraska Alumni Association in 1985 in Winslow’s honor by Irene Van Brunt. It was not until Irene Van Brunt died in 1995 that the investment had became a windfall.
The family honored the Van Brunts by donating the Van Brunt Visitors Center to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln as well as support for the Weigel Williamson Center for Visual at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. (The Center is named for Alice Van Brunt Williamson and Beth Van Brunt Weigel, the two Van Brunt offspring who were alive at the time their mother died.)
