After years of low enrollment and deferred maintenance during World War II, Stanford badly needed money to improve classrooms and labs, complete major repairs and attract more faculty and students. Newly hired business manager Alf Brandin set out in 1946 to generate that income -- and for the first time in University history, he looked to Stanford's lands. By the mid-1950s, Brandin had launched a major land development program that included construction of Stanford Shopping Center and Stanford Industrial Park, which brought in funding through rental fees. His vision, says former classmate and retired business executive Ed Littlefield, was "a departure from anything we'd ever done before, giving us income from real estate rather than from stocks and bonds."
Brandin, who managed Stanford's business affairs for 24 years, died November 18 at Stanford Hospital after a stroke. He was 87.
As a freshman in 1932, Brandin was an "instantly likable, prominent and popular face on campus," recalls Littlefield, '36, MBA '38. A center on the legendary Vow Boys football team, which promised never to lose a game to USC, he played in three consecutive Rose Bowls. He also played varsity baseball, was president of Zeta Psi and helped put himself through school by hashing at the Kappa Kappa Gamma house. After graduating with a degree in social science and social thought, he served in the Navy during World War II.
By 1959, when Brandin was named Stanford's first vice president for business affairs, he had established a reputation as a cautious and judicious developer. In an era of unbridled land exploitation, Brandin was careful to safeguard open space, preserving the rural feel that characterizes the campus to this day.
Brandin left Stanford in 1970 to join Utah International Inc., a mining company. But he stayed active in campus affairs, creating three athletic scholarships, sitting on the athletic board and the board of the Hoover Institution, and serving as president of the Stanford Historical Society. In 1979, he received the athletic board's Distinguished Achievement Medal.
Brandin's first wife, Marie Eck, '36, died in 1980. He is survived by his second wife, Pam, '64; four sons, Alf R., '59, Jon, '62, Erik, '68, and Mark, '72; two stepdaughters, Vanessa and Alexandra Roach; 11 grandchildren; 10 great-grandchildren; his sister, Betty Tendick; and two brothers, Leif and Bob.
