Richard Brandell

Richard Dick Brandell gave service to his community, veneration to God, and honor to his family. With his children and his spouse Mary Ellen attending him, he died on Tuesday, October 12, 2004 in the place he directed " the Mt. Pleasant home he loved. Dick was 71. School yearbooks from the late 1940s show Dick as a true life ninety pound weakling " but only in bulk, not in toughness or spirit - who played as a freshman lineman on the Sacred Heart Academy varsity football team. He continued the sport at Ferris State University, where he earned his pharmacy degree. Dick also enjoyed athletics as an adult. He swung a golf club like he was chopping wood, and he probably would have scored as well using an axe, but he played once every week in the summer because he delighted in the companionship of friends. He may have found his greatest contentment on any small boat on any Michigan lake fishing for bass and northern pike, with his father-in-law many years ago, or with one of his children in more recent times. The family indulged Dicks passion for the outdoors by making a camping trip their annual summer gathering. While Dick might relax his competitive intensity to allow a favored grandchild to beat him at Go Fish , he played an unforgiving game of euchre and ruthless contract bridge. Dick spent Saturday mornings rummaging flea markets to build his cherished collection of old photo postcards of Mt. Pleasant. On a Sunday morning he would finish a New York Times crossword puzzle in ink before heading off to church services. Evidence suggests a wayward youth. He taught his sons and his wifes younger brothers new kinds of poker, usually involving wild cards and obscure rules. Once Dick married into the family, no wedding would be complete without a late night poker game on the eve of the nuptials, sometimes leaving a Sweeney bridegroom with funds barely sufficient to pay for the honeymoon. Dick was even more proficient at pocket billiards, and proved unbeatable on his basement pool table. He retained a remarkable ability to bank the 8-ball into a side pocket well after illness began to erode his other physical skills. He served in the United States Army and spent many years on the Mt. Pleasant Planning Commission. A lifetime active member of the Sacred Heart Catholic Parish, he achieved distinction as the Grand Knight of the Mt. Pleasant Knights of Columbus, Council 1297. He was also a faithful navigator of the T.J. OConnor Assembly #495. Among the accomplishments he earned in his profession, Dick developed a pharmacy service for the Isabella Chippewa Reservation at the Nimkee Clinic, and was appointed its first pharmacist. Dick leaves his greatest achievement " marriage and family " as his last testament. His parents Leo and Ruth Brandell, his sister Elizabeth, and his brother John are now deceased. Dick married Mary Ellen Sweeney, a Sacred Heart Academy schoolmate who was the daughter of Dr. Joseph and Elizabeth Sweeney. Dick and Mary Ellen raised seven children: Mary Beth, Joe, Ann, Kathleen, Carol, Richard, and Jim. Dick lived to see each of them, by his blood and example, become a productive citizen and unique individual. The children, through Dicks illness, lived to see their mothers devotion to their father, and his resilience against a debilitating condition that sometimes tormented him. Bound together in life, Dicks family became even closer in his sickness and death. Richard Brandells legacy continues to the third generation: Margaret, Suzanne, Elizabeth and Mary Frances, whose parents are Mary Beth and Tim Curtiss; Kathryn and Ellen, the children of Joe and Cheryl Brandell; Anne Marie and Caroline, daughters of Jim and Anne Drolet; Beth and Tim, children of Carol and Myke OConnell; Joseph, Mariah, and Andrew, whose parents are Kathleen and Mark Mumford; and Ellen and Thomas Brandell, the children of Richard and Margo Brandell. May they achieve by their grandfathers example the character which will honor his memory. The family invites friends to celebrate Richard Brandells funeral Mass at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Mt. Pleasant at 11 a.m. Friday, October 15 with Father Jeff Donner presding and Father Robert Byrne and Father Richard Jozwiak concelebrating. Friends may call at Lux Funeral Home on Thursday from 3:00-5:30 and 7:00-9:00 p.m. with a vigil service beginning at 7:30 p.m. Interment will take place in Calvary Cemetery. Visitation continues at the funeral home on Friday from 9:30-10:30 a.m. Please make any memorial gifts to Hospice of Central Michigan, Isabella County Adult Day Program, Sacred Heart Academy Foundation, Mt. Pleasant Community Foundation, and/or the CMU College of Health Professions Endowment Fund. Envelopes are available at Lux Funeral Home.