KB
04-14-2005, 12:37 PM
F.C. Branch, 82, Pioneering Black Marine, Dies
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: April 14, 2005
PHILADELPHIA, April 13 (AP) - Frederick Clinton Branch, the first black commissioned officer in the Marine Corps, died Sunday in Philadelphia. He was 82.
His death was announced by his family and Roxborough Memorial Hospital.
Mr. Branch was drafted into the Marines in 1942 while a student at Temple University and scored well on a test for Officer Candidate School, but he lacked a recommendation and was rejected.
His wartime service in the Pacific, however, led to a recommendation and admission to O.C.S. He received his commission as a Marine lieutenant on Nov. 10, 1945, the 170th anniversary of the founding of the corps in Philadelphia, and was the only black graduate in a class of 250.
He served at Camp Pendleton, Calif., and the Marine base at Quantico, Va., which later named a building at its Officer Candidate School after him.
"I was the C.O. of an all-white platoon," Mr. Branch once told the magazine Marines. "I went by the book and trained and led them; they responded like marines do to their superiors."
He retired from active duty in May 1952 and founded the science department at Dobbins High School in North Philadelphia, where he taught for 35 years.
Mr. Branch was born in Hamlet, N.C., and earned a physics degree from Temple in 1947. He and his wife, Camilla, known as Peggy, who died in 2000, had no children. Survivors include a godson, Joseph Alex Cooper, whom the couple raised; and two brothers, William and Floyd.
www.washingtonpost.com
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: April 14, 2005
PHILADELPHIA, April 13 (AP) - Frederick Clinton Branch, the first black commissioned officer in the Marine Corps, died Sunday in Philadelphia. He was 82.
His death was announced by his family and Roxborough Memorial Hospital.
Mr. Branch was drafted into the Marines in 1942 while a student at Temple University and scored well on a test for Officer Candidate School, but he lacked a recommendation and was rejected.
His wartime service in the Pacific, however, led to a recommendation and admission to O.C.S. He received his commission as a Marine lieutenant on Nov. 10, 1945, the 170th anniversary of the founding of the corps in Philadelphia, and was the only black graduate in a class of 250.
He served at Camp Pendleton, Calif., and the Marine base at Quantico, Va., which later named a building at its Officer Candidate School after him.
"I was the C.O. of an all-white platoon," Mr. Branch once told the magazine Marines. "I went by the book and trained and led them; they responded like marines do to their superiors."
He retired from active duty in May 1952 and founded the science department at Dobbins High School in North Philadelphia, where he taught for 35 years.
Mr. Branch was born in Hamlet, N.C., and earned a physics degree from Temple in 1947. He and his wife, Camilla, known as Peggy, who died in 2000, had no children. Survivors include a godson, Joseph Alex Cooper, whom the couple raised; and two brothers, William and Floyd.
www.washingtonpost.com