Mal Branch’s story begins in Denver where he was born, but it takes shape outside of Chicago where he grew up. His father, a Navy aviator flying a B-24 during World War II, was his role model and from an early age, Mal knew he wanted to fly airplanes. 

 

He had an appointment to West Point and to the University of Wisconsin’s Navy ROTC. If he accepted the appointment to West Point, his flying career would have been as a helicopter pilot but he wanted to fly a fixed wing aircraft. So, it was off to the University of Wisconsin. After graduation, Mal went into the U. S. Navy in the Immediate College Education Program where he spent a year earning a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering.

 

Flight training began in Pensacola, Florida, and included posts in Mississippi and Texas. Mal spent 19 years on the West Coast at various bases. His military career then took a twist. He was accepted into the Navy's Nuclear Power Program where he learned to operate a nuclear power plant. After graduation, Mal became executive officer of the U.S.S. George Washington, which was being built. After his tour on the GW, Mal was assigned to the Mount Whitney, which was then the 2^nd Fleet flag ship. 

 

He returned to the U.S.S. George Washington as the third Commanding Officer. While Mal was the CO, the Navy wanted to institute Total Quality Leadership which was a military version of Edwards Deming’s Total Quality Management. The U.S.S. George Washington was selected as the Atlantic Fleet’s aircraft carrier to implement TQL. The results were that the ship’s costs were $1 million less per month than other aircraft carriers operating in the Atlantic Ocean. Just prior to retirement as a Navy captain, Mal spent six months working  with NATO.

 

Immediately after retiring from the Navy, Mal was operations manager at a start-up company founded by several  doctors to develop electronic medical records, a concept that took hold years later. He was then hired by The Virginian-Pilot to implement Total Quality Management. One big challenge was the delivery of newspapers so Mal worked with Old Dominion University and the Virginia Modeling and Simulation Center to implement the RouteSmart  program to determine the most efficient way to deliver up to 250,000 newspapers. One benefit of the program was helping lower turnover of the contract paper deliverers and to help them earn more money. 

 

After working at the Pilot, Mal moved to the non-profit world where he was the executive director of Virginia Ship Repair for nearly nine years.

 

Mal met his wife Nancy at a sorority party during his sophomore year of college. They are involved in the local community and have served on many boards. Mal is currently a commissioner at Norfolk International Airport and previous served on the boards of the American Red Cross, the NATO Festival and Greater Norfolk Corporation. He also chaired the Norfolk branch of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce.

 

Mal and Nancy love to travel. They recently took a trip through the Panama Canal to Los Angeles and plan to cruise next year to Antarctica. The trip to Antarctica will complete Mal's goal of having visited all seven continents. 

 

A member of our Rotary Club since 2002, Mal was introduced to Rotary by Kay Kemper. As a supporter of the Rotary Foundation, he is a Paul Harris Fellow + 6.