Malcolm K. Brachman

1926 - 2005

Malcolm K. Brachman, oil and insurance businessman, entrepreneur, nuclear physicist, philanthropist, and internationally renowned bridge player, died Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2005, at the home of his daughter, Lisa Brachman, in Chapel Hill, N.C.

Celebration of Life: Will be held Saturday, Jan. 15. Please call the funeral home for details. Entombment: Private.

Memorials: St. Mark's School Scholarship Fund, 10600 Preston Road, Dallas, Texas 75230; or the Minda and Malcolm Brachman Honors Scholarship Fund, Texas Christian University, Box 297044, Fort Worth, Texas 76129.

Mr. Brachman was 78 and had been living in Chapel Hill since shortly after becoming ill. According to his daughter, the cause was complications of pancreatic cancer.

Mr. Brachman was born in Fort Worth on Dec. 9, 1926, the son of Sol Brachman, a Jewish immigrant from Latvia, and the former Etta Katzenstein. His father was a successful entrepreneur in the then new field of oil and energy development in Texas. Malcolm Brachman graduated from Paschal High School at the age of 16. He matriculated at Yale University in the middle of World War II. He completed his B.S. in physics in two years with Phi Beta Kappa honors. He maintained a commission in the Army during this time. He went on to receive his master's and doctorate degrees from Harvard. Mr. Brachman returned to the Dallas-Fort Worth area in the late 1940s, living in Dallas and teaching physics at Southern Methodist University. In 1950, he accepted an offer to work on projects at Argonne National Laboratories in Batavia, Ill., outside Chicago. At this time, he lived in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago and also taught physics at the University of Chicago as an adjunct professor. He was soon introduced, through mutual friends, to Minda Delugach, an undergraduate at Northwestern University. They were married in 1951, and in 1953, they moved back to Dallas, when Mr. Brachman accepted a job offer from Texas Instruments. He also did consulting work for his father's oil and energy enterprises at this time. In 1957, he quit Texas Instruments to work full time at Producers Supply and Tool Co., a family business. He also worked at another family company, Pioneer American Insurance Co. He subsequently founded Northwest Oil, a small independent oil production company. In the 1960s, Mr. Brachman completed requirements for the certified life underwriter certificate. During this time, he also began to engage in a variety of philanthropic activities, including contributing to and serving on the boards of numerous institutions, including St. Mark's School of Texas, Texas Christian University and Jarvis Christian College. His philanthropic work resulted in numerous honors, including the awarding of the Yale Presidential Medal in 1998 and the Yale Medal in 2002. Mr. Brachman also served on the board of directors of Farrar, Straus & Giroux for several years. In spite of these many and varied commitments, he found time to play bridge, moving from duplicate rubbers among friends to major competitive tournament play. Mr. Brachman captained the teams that won several national championships, most recently in 2003, and he won championships in Rio de Janeiro in 1979. Mr. Brachman continued with work, family commitments, philanthropy and bridge until his recent illness made this untenable. His wife of more than 51 years, Minda, died in 2003.

Survivors: His daughter, Lisa; another daughter, Lynn Gryll of Chicago; son, Mac of Evanston, Ill.; five grandchildren; and sister-in-law, Martha Rosen of Hartsdale, N.Y.