James Brann Made an Impact Few Students Forgot
Former journalism department chair “loved connecting people and connecting with people”
James Brann would give students a failing grade if they missed spelling and grammar errors on their assignments.
James Brann Made an Impact Few Students Forgot
Former journalism department chair “loved connecting people and connecting with people”
James Brann, former chair of the College of Communication journalism department who deeply inspired students and reporters alike, died March 8, 2025. He was 91.
Brann landed his first job in journalism with the Harrisburg, Pa., Patriot-News. He later worked for several news agencies, and his articles were published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, the Atlantic, and other high-profile publications. Brann began teaching at BU in 1972 and was chair of the journalism department from 1973 to 1980. He continued teaching until 1998.
COM Dean Mariette DiChristina says she first learned the craft of journalism from Brann, who changed the trajectory of her life—twice. For his Introduction to Journalism course, says DiChristina (COM’86), Brann “would describe a news event and then ask students what their next phone call would be as reporters. For each tactic we suggested, he would give us a piece of information.”
He’d then give them five minutes “to bang out five paragraphs,” she says. “You got a minute or two to proof it, and he would put an ‘F’ on your paper if you didn’t catch all the spelling or grammar errors. I found it exhilarating to figure out how to find information and share such important information to readers on a deadline.”
Brann encouraged DiChristina to major in journalism. “You’re good at this,” he told her. “I took his advice,” she says, “and spent the next 30-plus years as a science journalist, the last 10 of which I was editor in chief of Scientific American.” Years later, it was Brann who urged her to apply to BU to become dean of the College of Communication.
Brann made an impact few students forgot. Michael Dowding (MET’85, COM’90), now a COM master lecturer, says Brann “possessed an irreplaceable, inimitable combination of pragmatic teaching, savvy observation, informal mentoring, and unflagging support. Jim loved connecting people and connecting with people. He loved learning about new things from students.”