MANDAN Historical Society

Working to Preserve & Promote Mandan's Heritage since 2004

Welcome

Membership

Activities

Ag Stn Centennial

History Harvest

TR-Coe Exhibit

WWII Exhibit

Museum & Office

Area History

Book: "Mantani"

The 1880s

Mandan Rodeo / Fair

School System History

The 1890s

The 1900s

1901 Pan Am Expo

1903 TR Visit to NDak

The 1910s

1910 Spring Flood

1911 Fair & Airplane Demo

1912 TR Whistle-Stop

The 1920s

Prohibition in Mandan

Mail Order Kit Homes

The 1930s

FDR Visit August 1936

The 1940s

The 1950s

1958 Lincoln Stamp FDC

Custer Drama / Trail West

The 1960s

The 1970s

The 1980s

The 1990s

1st of the 21st

2010-Present

Area Landmarks

Cary Bldg - Mandan Drug

CCC Camp Chimney

Christ the King Church

Collins Av Civic Bldg

First Lutheran Church

First National Bank Bldg

First Presbyterian Church

Great Plains Academy

Great Plains Expermt Stn

Lewis & Clark Hotel

Mandan Hill

Mandan Theatre

MV Produce Warehouse

Methodist Church

NP Beanery

NP "Colonial" RR Depot

NPRR Freighthouse

NP Rail High Bridge

Roughrider Statue

St Joseph Church

WWar Memorial Bldg

Youth Correctional Center

Gone Forever

Central School

Collins Ave Courthouse

Cummins Building

Deaconess Hospital

Eielson Field

Emerson Inst/Opera House

First St Federal Building

Havana Club

Hotel Nigey

InterOcean Hotel

Liberty Memorial Bridge

Mandan Creamery & Produce

Mandan Flour Mill

Merchants Hotel

NP "Queen Anne" Depot

Original Passenger Depot

Palace Theatre

Peoples' Hotel

Rock Haven

Topic Theatre

Young's Tavern

Heritage Homes

Altnow-Smith Home

Dunlap-Harris Home

Ellis-Uden Home

Freeburg-Esser Home

Lyon-Weigel Home

McGillic Home

Olson-Brick Home

Parkins-Cooley Home

Stutsman-Wyatt Home

Swanson-Reichman Home

Welch-Ness Home

Endowment Fund

Genealogy Links

Biographies A-C

J D Allen

Franklin Anders

Richard Baron

James Bellows

George Bingenheimer

Margaret Bingenheimer

Philip Blumenthal

Elijah Boley

Frank Briggs

Leo Broderick

William Broderick

Frank Bunting

Lyman Cary

James Clark

Henry Coe

Viola Boley Coe

Daniel Collins

Elizabeth Custer

George Custer

Biographies D-L

Alice Dahners

Henry Dahners

C E V (Charles) Draper

Esther Davis

Tony Dean

Joseph Devine

Ronald Erhardt

John Forbes

Palma Fristad

Gilbert Furness

Aloysius Galowitsch

Frederic Gerard

Zalmon Gilbert

Charles Grantier

James Hanley Jr

James Hanley Sr

Mary Harris

C Edgar Haupt

Michael Lang

William Langer

Albert Lanterman

William Lanterman

Richard Longfellow

Rolland Lutz

Hiram Lyon

Biographies M-R

George Marback

Gary Miller

Lee Mohr

Margaret Naylor

John Newton

Anton Ness

John Osterhouse

George Peoples

Arthur Peterson

Nels Romer

Hoy Russell

Walton Russell

Antonie Rybnicek

Ervin Rybnicek

Hynek Rybnicek

Biographies S-Z

Margaret Schaaf

George Shafer

Benjamin Shaw

William Simpson

Anna Knox Stark

Mary Stark

Benjamin Stephenson

J O Sullivan

John Sullivan

Era Bell Thompson

Andrew E Thorberg

Ida Thorberg

C L Timmerman

George Toman

Earle Tostevin

Edwin A Tostevin Sr

Edwin D Tostevin Jr

Walter Tostevin

Felix Vinatieri

A B Welch

Levon West

Frank Wetzstein

Harry Wheeler

Philomena Yunck

View Collections

Artifacts - Miscellanous

Newspapers

Pottery and Glass

Photos - Buildings

Photos - Downtown

Photos - Floods

Photos - People

Photos - Rail and Trains

What's New

William Charles Broderick (1917-2001)
William Charles "Bill" Broderick was born on September 26, 1917 to Leo and Genevieve (Metcalf) Broderick.  His father was a state district judge and longtime attorney in Mandan.  He was the oldest son and second of six children born to the couple. His siblings included Jane, John, Margie, Mary and Florence.  He attended St. Joseph's Elementary and graduated from Mandan High School in 1935.
1935 Mandan High School Boys Basketball Team L to R: Farr; Ferderer, Broderick Back Row L to R: Coach L. C. McMahan, Ordway, Shinners, Geiger and Reynolds
Bill attended Bismarck Junior College and finished his degree at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.  He had one year of ROTC training at the U of M and five years of training in Mandan with the 188th Field Artillery Unit of the ND National Guard.  He was employed by the postal service at Mandan.  He learned to fly at Eielson Field at Mandan in 1938.
Broderick was appointed an aviation cadet in the Army Air Corps on July 11, 1941, prior  to which he was at Fort Warren WY with Mandan's Battery A 188th Field Artillery.  Following his appointment as an aviation cadet, he received primary flight training at Grider Field, Pine Bluff, AR and basic flying training at Bush Field, Augusta GA.  From Bush Field he was transferred to Barksdale for advanced training.

He received his silver pilot's wings and a commission as a second lieutenant in the US Army Air Corps at graduation exercises at Barksdale Field, LA.  Lieutenant Broderick was a member of the third and last wartime class of pilots to graduate from Barksdale Field which has been changed from a pilot training school to a base for combat units.

Broderick was promoted to first lieutenant in September 1942.  First stationed at a weather station in Greenland, we went to England before going to Africa. He was shot down over Tunisia on February 4, 1943 and captured.

Initially he was sent to Stalag III in Germany where conditions were relatively comfortable.  However after the Allied armies pushed into France and eventually Germany itself, prisoners of war (POWs) were consolidated into camps in central Germany. The overcrowding made conditions truly terrible. Broderick and 10,000 other POWs were marched from their camp in late January 1945 in winter blizzard conditions. They were eventually loaded 50 to a 40-and-8 boxcar for a tortuous three day rail trip to Stalag VII A in Moosburg Germany. He remained there until freed with 130,000 Allied prisoners of war (including 30,000 other Americans) on April 29, 1945.

He returned to his family in Mandan on June 3, 1945 a scant 110 pounds in size. Despite his objections, his mother insisted he attend the wedding of Margaret Kennelly and Charles Murphy. Margaret's twin sister Mary Ellen had known William's younger brother John, also a pilot but killed-in-action in January 1945. Mary Ellen took Bill in hand during the event. Two weeks later the couple was engaged and married one month later. The couple honeymooned at a rest camp in California. Mary Ellen and Bill would have three children, sons Thomas and William Jr. as well as a daughter Colleen.

Upon his discharge that fall, he enrolled at the University of Minnesota.  He graduated in 1951 with his medical degree.  He subsequently began his internship at Stanislanus County Hospital in Medesto, California.  He and his family remained there where he practiced as a general and family doctor for over 45 years.

In 1956, William married Nancy Smith in Modesto and William adopted the three children from her prior marriage: Joan, Sheldon and John Smith.

Dr. Broderick worked with the city of Modesto to pioneer programs for protecting employees from the long-term effects of exposure to agricultural and industrial chemicals.  He was also a teacher in Stanford Medical Center's primary care associate program.
  William Broderick participated in several state and local medical societies.  He was also a member of the Elks, the Del Rio Country Club and the Modesto Duck Club.

He continued flying throughout his life.  He survived several crashes, including one in a form field in Oakdale, CA in 1962.  He also served as an aviation medical examiner for the US Federal Aviation Administration.

Dr. Broderick died on August 13, 2001 at the age of 83 at the hospital he helped to found, Doctor's Medical Center in Modesto, CA.  He is buried in Modesto.

The Society appreciates the assistance from MHSoc life member Mary Broderick-Harris for sharing this information on her brother with us.

The MHSoc's museum and office is located at 3827 30th Avenue NW; PO Box 1001; Mandan, ND 58554
Contact us at info@mandanhistory.org


Last Updated 03/28
/23    ©  2007-2023  Mandan Historical Society   All rights reserved