Bob Brandon Memorial Video Now Posted Online

 

DENVER, CO (January 12, 2010) – A memorial service to celebrate the life of Robert (Bob) Brandon was held Sunday in Denver, and a video about his life, his television stories, and his experiences as a 30-year member of NPPA's NewsVideo Workshop faculty has now been posted on YouTube for everyone to share.

The video, which was part of Sunday's memorial, includes dramatic scenes of when Brandon, as a young photographer in Houston, was seriously burned during an explosion while he was covering a train derailment in Texas. The tribute story was voiced and written by NBC News correspondent Bob Dotson and edited by Denver's Kevin Hartfield.

The two-time national Emmy Award-winning television journalist died December 9, 2009, in New York while visiting his daughter. Bradon twice won NPPA's top video journalist honor, the Ernie Crisp Television Photographer of the Year title, and was given the organization's highest honor in 2006 when he was presented with the Joseph A. Sprague Memorial Award. Brandon had also been the winner of NPPA’s Cliff Edom Award for his ability to inspire and motivate young photographers.

Brandon was a cameraman for four decades, shooting his first images in 1966 while still in college for KGNC-TV in Amarillo, TX. In 1970 he joined KPRC-TV in Houston, winning more than 30 awards there in 9 years and leading the station through the switch from film to videotape. He left KPRC-TV in 1979 to freelance.

Brandon had been seriously ill and waiting for a kidney transplant for some time when he traveled from Denver to New York in December to visit his daughter, Ellie Brandon, to celebrate her 18th birthday. He was 63 when he died.

The photojournalist is survived by his three children. In addition to Ellie, his daughter Kristi Ortiz is a physician's assistant in Houston, TX, and his son, Ron Brandon, lives in Oxford, NY.

The family has asked for donations in Brandon's memory be made to the American Transplant Foundation (www.americantransplantfoundation.org), or the Donor Alliance (www.donoralliance.org).

 

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