Obituary of Louis Carroll Branca

Louis Carroll Branca, an educator and writer who participated as a toddler in a groundbreaking intelligence study that took on the academic community and challenged scientific beliefs about IQ, has died of MDS anemia and leukemia at age 81. The 1930s study by Drs. Harold M. Skeels and Harold B. Dye, which sent 11 toddlers from an over-crowded orphanage in Davenport, Iowa, to be nurtured by inmates in an institution for women who had been labeled “feeble-minded,” became a benchmark that challenged the fixity of IQ at a time when IQ was considered determined at birth. In the 1960s, Skeels led a follow-up study of those orphans who had been in danger of being labeled low-IQ and found that the children had become successful adults. Once again, the study engaged the nature vs. nurture debate and the data was influential in the development of the Head Start Program. Lou was included in a ceremony celebrating the study and sponsored by the Kennedy family, and he appeared on the Today Show to talk about the importance of the study. “It was a Lollapalooza in the history of child development in America, and I was a part of it,” Lou wrote in the memoir he completed just before his death. When Lou was at the orphanage, he developed an ability to mimic sounds and could play trumpet solos without an instrument. He often woke up his family by playing revele on his lips alone. His interest in sounds led to a life-long love of music, and along with his trumpet he played guitar, piano and sometimes the fiddle. Lou was adopted by Louis Philip and Genevieve Carroll Branca and attended St. Mark’s Grade School in St. Paul, St. Thomas Military Academy and the University of Minnesota, where he completed his undergraduate degree and did graduate studies in Public Administration. After a three-year tour of duty in the Army, he was in the Marine Corps reserves for single engine flight training. A counselor and educator for much of his career, he worked at the University of Minnesota for 28 years, often speaking to students enrolled in psychology courses about the dangers of labeling and the importance of offering children nurturing attention during the first years of life. After he retired from the University, he joined a group of pioneers building a private for-profit online university and seeking accreditation. The school, called The Graduate School of America at the time, became Capella University, and Lou completed a Masters in Education while working at Capella. “Lou used to say he joined Capella when it had four students,” said his wife Cass Dalglish, “and two of the students hadn’t paid their tuition yet. Now there are more than 35,000.” Recently, Lou has been a student in the Augsburg College MFA in Creative Writing Program, studying creative nonfiction and working on a memoir about his orphanage experience. Lou is survived by his wife Cass; children Louis J. Branca, Cletus Dalglish-Schommer, Natasha and Ladric D’Schommer-Grant, and Margaret and Beth Branca; grandchildren Kate and Emily Branca and Aria D’Schommer-Grant; sister-in-law Judith McCartin Scheide; brothers-in-law Jim and Bill Dalglish; and many loving nieces and nephews. A memorial will be held in the Hoversten Chapel, Foss Center, at Augsburg College on Saturday, September 12, at 5 p.m. `` ```````````````````