MUNCIE, Ind. (AP) - Look up the definition of “Renaissance man” in the dictionary, and you won’t find Dr. George Branam’s name. It ought to be there, though, for he fits the definition. For the record, a Renaissance man is defined as “a present-day man who has acquired profound knowledge or proficiency in more than one field.”
Branam, at age 86, is still a practicing pathologist at IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital, putting in 30 hours a week. By his reckoning, he’s been involved with 10,000 autopsies, going back to his college days when performing autopsies helped pay for his college at Indiana University. He’s also had a hand in about 350,000 biopsies.
But he’s more than just a physician. Step into his cozy home that echoes the style of colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, and he’ll tell you about the massive fireplace he had specially constructed to mimic early American style, or how he found the Oriental rug in the family room (he passed by a rug shop while running in the Boston Marathon). Or he’ll rattle off names of Indiana artists he likes to collect and whose artwork hangs in the home he shares with his wife, Linda.
Branam this year stepped down as co-chairman of Muncie Action Plan. He plans to remain on the board, but he and the other co-chair, Virginia Nilles, helped guide the organization in its formative years of 2009-10. Branam jokes there were five women who started MAP, plus Nilles, so he was the “token male” of the group. On a serious note, he said of Nilles: “Both of us had a reputation of wanting to do well for the community, without regard to politics.” MAP has been successful at organizing neighborhood associations and improving childhood literacy and education with the BY5 program, as well as other endeavors spread among five task forces.
Branam believes education and opportunity elevates people in each neighborhood to a level of being concerned about their town as a whole. “Then they would become more interested in politics and into making a difference,” he said.
Besides MAP, Branam has been involved in numerous community organizations. Clips from Star Press archives include chairman of the clinical staff and its executive committee at IU Health BMH; working with more than 300 young physicians in training in teaching hospitals; he’s served on the board of directors for Muncie Symphony Orchestra, Muncie Children’s Museum, Muncie-Delaware County Chamber of Commerce, Shafer Leadership Academy and more.
“I think I’m motivated for two reasons,” he answered. “One, I like people. And two, I think that those of us who are blessed by having a good education and resources, need to help people in some fashion or another.” Serving the community can be a duty or a privilege, he said. He considers it a privilege.
Not bad for someone with humble beginnings in Bloomington.
Growing up there, he lived in about 10 different houses rented by his parents, neither of them graduated from high school. His father was secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO and worked at Showers Brothers Furniture factory.
Both of his parents vowed he and his siblings would attend college. His grandfather wanted him to be a lawyer or a doctor.
His father wanted him to play sports, so he tried football and basketball. “I could run down the floor with the best of them, but I couldn’t hit that basket worth a darn.” Then he tried football, but as a freshman, “They just killed me. I got stomped all over.”
He had an early morning paper route for the Indianapolis Star, so he was always riding a bike, walking or jogging his route. “I didn’t know I was training for track, but I guess I was.”
In April 1947, he had his first time trial in track on a Saturday, the first mile he ever ran competitively. He was leading going into the last hundred yards but a senior beat him to the finish line. He recalls that first mile was run in 5:05, a very fast time. “By noon Monday, I was a folk hero,” he said.
That was among the first of literally thousands of miles he would run, competitively and for fun. A tally he estimates now stands at about 110,000 miles (he keeps records) and ran in eight Boston Marathons and about 66 total marathons.
He had success as a runner in high school, competing at the state level, and that translated into an athletic scholarship to attend Indiana University.
His ambition to become a doctor was almost derailed when he was told he didn’t have the grades. “Nothing spurs me on more than to have someone say ’I can’t.’” He buckled down for the next year or two. “Down in my guts, I’m an awful competitor. I don’t like to lose.”
As a junior, he was selected to be a lab assistant, which was the first year of med. school. “So I got a running start.”
The more he learned in physiology and performing autopsies on weekends at an Indianapolis hospital, “It’s pretty obvious we kill ourselves with our diet and no exercise.” That spurred him to continue running and staying physically active. He calls himself a “fitness freak.”
Upon graduating from IU’s medical school, he joined the Air Force and was stationed in an Army hospital in Denver and Later San Francisco. “The Air Force didn’t know where I was and the Army didn’t care,” he said in his dry humor. Eventually, he ended up at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. He was the ranking captain and settled on pathology as his field of study.
While at Lackland, Muncie physician Lall Montgomery contacted Branam in 1965 and offered him a chance to take over Ball Memorial Hospital’s lab. He and other physicians would found PA Labs, in 1966, which has since been sold. It was in Muncie where he met his second wife, Linda.
Branam said he always enjoyed teaching, because the process always helped him know more. When asked how he managed to get so much done, the answer was not surprising: “I hate to waste time. I just can’t hardly stand it, because time is precious.”
And that, too, seems to also fit the definition of a Renaissance man.
___
Source: The (Muncie) Star Press, https://tspne.ws/2o2rTvl
___
Information from: The Star Press, https://www.thestarpress.com
Please read our comment policy before commenting.