Klaus Brandt

1933 - 2017

Klaus Brandt

December 15, 1933 – November 2, 2017

Palo Alto

Klaus Brandt passed away peacefully in his Palo Alto home with family by his side November 2, 2017. Klaus was born in New York City in 1933 to Karl and Anita Brandt. His parents had just escaped Nazi Germany where his father was a professor of Agricultural Economics. His father arrived to a professorship at the New School for Social Research in New York. Klaus spent the first five years of his life in Tenafly, New Jersey where his brothers Jobst and Goetz were born. The family moved to Palo Alto when his father accepted a professorship at Stanford University. Klaus' third brother Ralph was born in 1938 in Palo Alto.

Klaus attended Addison Elementary school, Jordan Junior High school and Bellarmine College Preparatory where he excelled academically and received a scholarship to Chicago University after his junior high school year. In 1956 he entered the U.S. Army and spent his tour in France where he married his wife Aline. After his tour in Europe he finished his undergraduate studies at the University of California where he got a degree in business administration.

Early on Klaus developed a love and appreciation of trains that would last his lifetime. His enthusiasm fuelled the development of an encyclopedic knowledge of railways at home and abroad. His first and only employment was with the Southern Pacific Railroad who sponsored his leave to Stanford to earn his MBA. Klaus went on to become the head of Southern Pacific's Bureau of Transportation Research and Manager of Costs and Economics. Klaus retired from SP in 1989 and consulted for the company until 1994.

Klaus and Aline had two children, Marc and Sophie who were at his bedside when he died. Aline died of cancer in 1985. Klaus married Adda Sigurdar, also a Southern Pacific employee, his second wife for the past twenty three years. Klaus and Adda were great partners and world travelers who in turn received and entertained a long list of visitors. Their house in Palo Alto has been a rest stop known around the world, guest rooms hosting an endless string of friends. Their dinner parties are legendary, the Stanford, French, and Icelandic communities gathering over the years.

Klaus is survived by his wife Adda; son Marc and Richel Brandt, daughter Sophie Brandt-Lonsky and Peter Lonsky and their three sons, Christian, Aidan, and Steffan; and Klaus' younger brothers Goetz and Ralph. He was the patriarch of a large community, consisting of family, friends, and business associates. He will be missed.