The passing of a gentle giant: a personal tribute to John Brandl.(in memoriam)(In memoriam)

The education reform community lost a champion in August when John E. Brandl died of cancer on the eve of his 71st birthday. John was many things in his lifetime: gas station attendant, Army ROTC officer, Harvard-trained economist, McNamara "Whiz Kid," Deputy Assistant Secretary for Education in the Johnson administration, Minnesota state legislator, professor, dean of public affairs, scholar, author, mentor, husband, father, and friend to many. He is best known in education reform circles as the sponsor of legislation to develop and expand school choice in Minnesota, especially the nation's first law charter school. In 2005 he received the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation Excellence in Education Prize for Valor and was saluted as the "godfather of school choice."

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He was my godfather as well, in fact and deed if not formally in name. My mother and he grew up in the same neighborhood in St. Cloud, Minnesota, and remained close friends their entire lives. I first met John on March 24, 1965, when I was two weeks old and John was starting to explore strategies of education reform at the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. One of my uncles was named my godfather but was unable to attend the baptism. John stepped into the role, supposedly just for that day, and never stepped out of it. That was John.

When I was 13,1 had a seemingly unquenchable thirst for knowledge about American history, politics, and public policy. My mom confessed to John that she was having great difficulty "feeding the beast" of my interests. John had a simple solution, "Put him on a bus to the Twin Cities and I will take him with me to the legislature." John was a state representative and a member of the Democrat-Farmer-Labor (DFL) majority at that time. In the morning he gave me a tour of the state Capitol and allowed me to sit in on a DFL strategy session. John and I then had lunch with the Speaker of the House, Harry Sieben. It was the penultimate day of the legislative session, so dozens of important bills came up ...