Glennwood J. Branche, Vice President, News Operations, Washington Bureau, ABC News, died Wednesday night. He is survived by his wife, Yolanda, and two daughters, Erin and Natalie. He was 62.

Sources tell The Mirror he had a particularly aggressive form of Leukemia.

Branche was a longtime executive at ABC, having moved into the job in the Washington bureau in 1995. Before that he worked at the network’s Philadelphia and St. Louis bureaus.

Branche was a Howard University graduate.

He first went to work for ABC in 1975.

Oddly, The Mirror initially, for hours, had a rough time formally confirming Branche’s death or getting anyone at ABC to say anything about his passing.

Upon phoning ABC’s Washington bureau, they put me on hold twice, transferred the crap out of me and wouldn’t confirm the news. Ultimately a male staffer said he couldn’t talk to me because there was breaking news.

ABC White House correspondent Jonathan Karl replied late afternoon, just after receiving an internal memo with the news, saying, “Just got word. Sad. He was a great guy.”

A publicist was finally reached but appeared to have no knowledge of what I was asking about. “What is the context of your story?” the flack asked. Seriously, the context? I replied: “It’s an obituary.”

See the internal memo from ABC’s James Goldstein that was sent to staff late Thursday afternoon.

Team –
It is with deep sadness that I write to inform you that our friend Glennwood Branche died last night of leukemia at the age of 62.
For nearly 40 years, Glennwood dedicated himself to ABC News and was a cherished and beloved leader for generations of our journalists.
In 1995, Glennwood began serving as Vice President of Operations at our D.C. bureau. For 20 years, up until his retirement just a few months ago, he was involved in each and every story in Washington, always the first to arrive in times of crisis and breaking news.
Glennwood started his career at the assignment desks at WJLA-TV and the D.C. bureau, refining his skills and talent for news before moving on to producer roles. Later, he became Bureau Chief in St. Louis and Philadelphia, as well as Senior Producer for World News Tonight. He won an Emmy Award and two Peabody Awards for our Millennium Special and September 11th coverage.
After such an incredible career, he was looking forward to a wonderful retirement with his wife Yolanda and his two daughters, Erin and Natalie. It was sadly not to be, but those who spoke with him in recent days say he was remarkably at peace and prepared, his faith unbelievably strong.

Glennwood truly helped to build ABC News, and just as importantly, he did so much to build and support the people of ABC News.

We will all miss him very much.

James

See Branche with TV Newsman Ted Koppel and FNC’s Howard Kurtz below.