Outstanding Alumnus

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sept. 25, 2008

Lee Elliff Pound
(417) 625-9355

 

JOPLIN, MO (SNS) - A longtime Missouri Southern supporter and leader in his field, Jack Brannan, has been tabbed for the 2008 Outstanding Alumni award.

Jack Brannan. started what became his career in journalism during the summer of 1952 when he began work as a reporter for The Joplin Globe and then enrolled in Joplin Junior College. He was 16 years old at the time.

Brannan was Sports Editor of the student newspaper The Chart during his sophomore year in 1953-54, under the ever-watchful eye of JJC faculty member Miss Cleetis Headlee.

From Joplin, he went on to Tulsa, Okla. where he worked as a reporter and sports writer for The Tulsa World while majoring in journalism at the University of Tulsa. In 1999, after a career spanning more than four decades, he was inducted into the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame.

Brannan spent almost 20 years as a news correspondent, editor and management executive with United Press International. He joined UPI in Oklahoma City after finishing college and two years of Army duty.

He moved on to manage UPI’s Kansas City bureau, then worked as a White House and State Department correspondent in Washington, D.C., where he specialized in Latin American diplomatic affairs and U.S. foreign policy during the early months of the Johnson administration.

In 1965, Brannan was named news editor and chief correspondent at UPI’s South American headquarters in Buenos Aires, Argentina, beginning a foreign tour during which he reported from countries throughout South America. He later was based in Caracas, Venezuela, and was general manager of UPI’s Caribbean division.

In the early 1970s, Brannan was an assistant foreign news editor and economic analyst at UPI world headquarters in New York. He later joined the New York Stock Exchange as manager of its media communications and news bureau. He subsequently held corporate consulting positions in Dallas, Boston and Los Angeles and, returning to newspaper work, was an editor on the foreign news desk of the Los Angeles Times.

In citing contributions he made to his profession, the Journalism Hall of Fame noted that “even after Brannan’s retirement “his reputation as ‘one helluva newsman’ continues.”

Brannan currently lives in Kansas City and also maintains a residence in Buenos Aires.

 

                                                                                                                                                     
                                   

 

 

 

 

 

 

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