Braum, Daniel M.

Daniel M. Braum was born on February 1, 1896, in Jackson County, Kansas. He graduated from Denison High School, Denison, Kansas in 1913 and attended Prep School in Agriculture at Manhattan, Kansas from 1913 to 1915. After prep school, Braum attended Cooper College in Sterling, Kansas. In 1918, he was pulled into military service and served in World War I. On December 20, 1920, Braum married Roberta M. Myers. For the next two years, he was a farmhand for his father, John Henderson Braum, south of Denison, Kansas.

Braum graduated from Kansas State Agriculture College with a Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture in 1924. After college, he worked as a County Farm Bureau Agent in Burlington, Kansas until 1927, when he moved to northeast Kansas and began operating his own farm. In 1930, Braum moved to Iola, Kansas, where he served as the County Farm Bureau Agent for five years. From 1935 to 1940 he worked as a Soil Conservation Service Training Specialist for the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) where he directed training in at least fifty-nine camps in the Central Plains including the camp at Salina, Kansas and Amarillo, Texas.

Between 1940 and 1950, Braum worked with the Training Division of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in Washington, D. C. He helped to install the National Farm Work Simplification Laboratory at Purdue University. During this time he began using principles of Scientific Management to develop a method of construction training programs and delivered two papers regarding this method.

In 1947, Braum was the delegate to International Management Congress in Stockholm, Sweden. While there he delivered his paper entitled “Progress of Scientific Farm Management.” His second paper was delivered in 1949, at the Third General Semantic Congress, Denver, Colorado, entitled, “Peaceful Approach to Work.”

Braum’s international experience landed him the job of Chief of Training for the General Services Administration where he served as a consultant in Public Administration to the Philippine government between 1950 and 1952. Simultaneously, he served as a delegate to the International Management Congress in Brussels, Belgium in 1951. His work garnered him a fellowship to District of Columbia (D. C.) Chapter of the Society for the Advancement of Management.

Braum’s familiarity with the Philippine government furthered his career when he accepted a professorship on the faculty of the University of Philippines as Director of In-Service Training in the New Institute of Public Administration from 1952 to 1955. He directed the training of supervisors, executives, and bureau chiefs, and conducted government-wide conferences in budgeting, personnel management and records management. Braum assisted Dr. Lillian M. Gilbreth in organizing the Philippine Council of Government when it was given membership in the International Committee of Scientific Management. With Philippine officials, he developed training policies and plans for the Philippine government. His work led to the publication of his book, Thousand Questions on Supervision in the Philippine Government.

The next ten years found Braum back in the United States working as a training officer of Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service of the USDA in Washington, D. C. There he developed training policies and plans for the Service which was responsible for price support and management of surpluses for the United States. In 1957, he was assigned for three-and-a-half months to the Indonesian Government to demonstrate management training where he prepared dual language flip charts for instruction that were published.

In 1959, Braum was a delegate to the International Management Conference in Paris. This same year he participated in the American Society for Public Administration Management Institute at the University of Colorado and he received the USDA superior service award. Braum served as a member of the Board of Governors for the planning of the International Industrial Engineers Conference in New York City in 1963. That same year he was a delegate to the International Management Conference also held in New York City. In 1964, he was awarded life membership to the D. C. Chapter of the Society for the Advancement of Management.

In 1965, Braum’s retired from USDA Commodity Stabilization Service. He became a part-time consultant for the Agriculture International Development Foreign Training Division within the USDA until 1980. During this time he developed and conducted the management program for foreign trainees. In 1966, Braum received the Gilbreth Medal for his contributions to the application of time and motion studies. He was recognized in 1978 by the National Republican Committee from President Ronald Regan for his generosity and service to the Republican Party.

Daniel M. Braum died on October 26, 1981, in Rockville, Maryland. His body was brought home to Denison, Kansas for burial at the Denison Cemetery.

Creator Source: Local Authority File