To Thine Own Self Be True: The Enduring Legacy of Eugene Willis Bramlett by Deb Draper • Photos courtesy of Bobby Bramlett This is the story of a man who made a difference in the lives of his family, his workmates and associates, and in the lives of African-American people in the sheet metal industry. In January 2019, Eugene Willis Bramlett, founder and CEO of Aire Sheet Metal in Redwood City, California, left behind his beloved wife of 63 years, Wilhelmina Johanna (Monna), and his two sons, Marlo and Bobby, who are continuing his life’s work. For 48 years, Eugene Bramlett steered his company through often turbulent times to become the longest tenured and largest African American-owned HVAC company in the United States. He served as president of the San Mateo Chapter of SMACNA and sat on the Board for two decades while acting as the co-chair of the sheet metal JATC from 1972 to 1976. “Eugene was a professional through-and-through,” says Matthew Smith, principal and managing officer of Smith Heating & Air Conditioning, Inc. in Stockton, California. “He was an outstanding SMACNA contractor, but there is so much more to his story.” Bobby Bramlett talks about how his father came from a family of 13 kids in Oklahoma and later moved to California. While still 8 » Partners in Progress » www.pinp.org
in college, Eugene joined the United States Air Force, serving in foreign deployment as a master sergeant and member of the military police. In 1954, while stationed in Soesterberg, Holland, he met the love of his life, Monna. When he sought permission from his commanding officer to marry, the answer was an unequivocal “no.” There was no way he would be allowed to marry a white woman. “My dad said he was doing it, like it or not,” Bobby says. “He never backed down, despite their threats to send him back to the United States and despite failed attempts to discredit him. No one was going to tell him what to do—that’s how he lived his entire life.” They married, and Bobby was born in Holland. In 1958, the family was sent back to the United States and soon began the long drive from New York to California. As they travelled through the southern states, Monna had to sit in the back seat and keep her young son on the floorboards for fear she and Eugene would be seen as a couple—still illegal in parts of that region at that time.
