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Craig TenBroeck, 85, was an engineer who sang and valued friends

Mr. TenBroeck turned his passions of genealogy and electronics into clubs that brought enthusiasts together.

Mr. TenBroeck often lectured about genealogical research.
Mr. TenBroeck often lectured about genealogical research.Read moreTenBroeck family
    by Gary Miles
    Published 
People We’ve Lost
  • Craig TenBroeck
  • 85 years old
  • Lived in Malvern
  • An electrical engineer, he had a beautiful tenor voice

More Memorials

It was hard for Trish Hayward to choose which anecdote best captured the personality of her stepfather, Craig TenBroeck.

Was it that he and his wife, Angela (Jill) Shiner TenBroeck, were passionate travelers who visited both Punxsutawney, Pa., to see Phil the famous groundhog, and China, to peek behind the Great Wall? Was it that he returned to his Episcopal Academy reunion year after year despite Parkinson’s disease, a wheelchair, and other ailments?

Was it that he loved to lecture about genealogical research or sing with the Savoy Company theater group and St. David’s Church choir? Was it that he founded both the Main Line Genealogy Club and Main Line Apple User Group, and ran Bala Printing in Bala Cynwyd until he retired in 2000?

No, Hayward said. “It wasn’t what he did,” she said. “It was how he was. And he was such a gentle soul.”

Mr. TenBroeck, 85, died on Tuesday, April 21, at Dunwoody Village in Newtown Square of the coronavirus.

He turned his passions of genealogy and electronics into clubs that brought enthusiasts together.

“People just got attached to him,” Hayward said. “One of his favorite things was to get together with the ‘Birthday Boys’ every month to celebrate somebody’s birthday. He loved being with people.”

A member, along with his brother and two sisters, of the sixth generation of TenBroecks in the Philadelphia area, Mr. TenBroeck left his home on Malvern’s Yellow Springs Road and graduated from Cornell University in 1958 with a degree in electrical engineering. Living with his wife in Radnor for much of his life, he worked at Burroughs Corp. and General Electric Aerospace.

He sang. He studied. He traveled. He turned his passions of genealogy and electronics into clubs that brought enthusiasts together.

“And he loved to goof around,” Hayward said.

In addition to his wife and stepdaughter, Mr. TenBroeck is survived by daughter Leslie Anne; sons Philip Alexander and Christopher Leigh; stepson J. Kenyon Hayward; two sisters; a brother; two stepchildren, 12 grandchildren and step-grandchildren, one step-great-grandchild and other family and friends. His former wife Joan Thomson TenBroeck preceded him in death. He also had been married to Christina Petrow.

A celebration of life is to be held later.

— Gary Miles