Mel Branch, described in a Los Angeles Times obituary as “an educator, author, and urban planner who taught at the University of Southern California for many years and served on the Los Angeles Planning Commission through the 1960s,” died Feb. 11, 2007, of complications from heart disease at his home in Pacific Palisades. A pioneer in his field, he was the first student to earn a doctoral degree in regional planning at Harvard, in 1949.
Mel was the author of more than 20 books, including Comprehensive Planning for the 21st Century: General Theory and Principles, published in 1998. He became immersed in a teaching and writing career even before he had completed his graduate studies. In the early 1940s he helped establish the Bureau of Urban Research at Princeton. He became an associate professor of planning at the University of Chicago in 1947, then taught at the University of California, Los Angeles, before joining the faculty of USC in 1966.
Mel married Hilda Rollman in 1951. Surviving, in addition to her, are a stepdaughter, Veronica Kaufman, and several nieces and nephews. A memorial service is planned for later this year.