Brush Engineered Materials Mourns Loss of Dr. Charles F. Brush III, Director Emeritus.

CLEVELAND -- Brush Engineered Materials Inc. (NYSE:BW) announced today that Dr. Charles F. Brush III, Director Emeritus of the Company and a nationally recognized scientific explorer, passed away June 1, 2006. Dr. Brush first joined the Company's board in April 1949 and served on a continuous basis from December 1958 until December 2003 when he retired as a Director.

Dr. Brush is known for his various expeditions where he excavated one of the earliest ceramics in Mexico and explored high altitude lakes in the Andean Mountains in South America where he discovered previously unknown species. In one of the expeditions to the world's highest lake in the crater of Volcano Lincancabur, he established an unofficial world altitude record (19,300 feet) for scuba diving.

"Over a momentous period of nearly 50 years, Charlie Brush served Brush Engineered Materials with distinction and dedication. His years of academic training and accomplishments to the human sciences throughout the world provided for a very unique perspective to our board," commented Richard J. Hipple, Chairman, President and CEO. He added, "As we mourn the loss of Charlie, we also reflect on his many contributions to the Company as a board member. We will miss him and his counsel to Brush, and extend our condolences to his family."

The death of Dr. Brush also marks the end of direct Brush family management or governance responsibilities with the Company. Dr. Brush's father, Charles F. Brush, Jr., was a noted scientist and founder of the Brush Laboratories Company, which, in the 1920s, pioneered industrial uses for beryllium. Commercialization of the beryllium technology of Brush Laboratories led to the formation of the Brush Beryllium Company in 1931. Brush Beryllium Company later became Brush Wellman Inc., now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Brush Engineered Materials Inc. Dr. Brush's grandfather, Charles F. Brush, was the inventor of the electric arc lamp, for which he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame earlier this year.

Dr. Brush was born in Cleveland in April 1923. He interrupted his college studies at Yale University to serve in the U.S. Army Signal Corps from 1943 to 1945. Following World War II, he returned to Yale to earn his bachelor's degree in sociology in 1947 and master's degree in sociology a year later. In 1969, he earned a Ph.D. in anthropology at Columbia University.

At various times in his career he was a curatorial associate at the Peabody Museum at Yale University, a research associate at the University of South Carolina and a field associate of the American Museum of Natural History. From 1984 to 1990, he was a member of the Yale University Council and chaired the Council's committee on the Peabody Museum. From 1981 to 1987 he was a member of the Sierra Club Foundation Board of Directors, and Councilor of the American Geographical Society from 1969 to 2004.

From 1978 to 1981, he was president of the Explorers Club, an international multidisciplinary professional society dedicated to the advancement of field research. The Club's members have been responsible for an illustrious series of famous firsts: first to the North Pole, first to the South Pole, first to the summit of Mount Everest, first to the deepest point in the ocean, first to the surface of the moon. The proudest accomplishment of his Presidency was the admission of women for the first time to the Club.

Brush Engineered Materials Inc. is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio. The Company, through its wholly-owned subsidiaries, supplies worldwide markets with beryllium products, alloy products, electronic products, precious metal products, and engineered material systems.

www.beminc.com