RIP Andrew Branch: His driving school taught 800,000 people to drive in Syracuse

Hard work was taught to Andrew Branch at an early age.

His father, Andrew Sr., worked at the Geddes Street rail yard, moving trains and locomotives, while his mother, Ethel, worked as a housekeeper at Crouse Irving Hospital in Syracuse, where she kept old newspapers.

After a few weeks, she had her son pull his child’s truck up a hill from their home in the old 15th Ward to retrieve the papers and then stack them in the garage to later sell them to a junk dealer.

“She saved that money and used it,” Branch told former Post-Standard columnist Dick Case in 2006, “to buy a house, a four-family house on Thomas Street.”

“That taught me that you can’t do things unless you see things,” he said.

Branch died on September 19 in Camden, South Carolina at the age of 91.

His family will hold a memorial service in his hometown on Saturday, November 9, at 11 a.m. at Hopps Memorial CME Church, 1110 South State Street, Syracuse.

The service will remember a city success story.

Andrew Branch was born on July 28, 1933 in Syracuse. He was the seventh child in a family of nine.

He attended Nottingham High School and excelled in academics and athletics. The Post-Standard archives report that he excelled in the 100- and 220-meter sprints and the broad jump.

In November 1952, he was elected president of his senior class. His son, Deraux, said it was rare at the time for a black student to earn such an honor.

“Our senior group is the last graduating class from Nottingham now in service,” he said in an impromptu speech after his election. “Let’s make the last year in our current school house unforgettable.”

After graduating, he married his high school sweetheart, Fanny Burroughs. He was drafted into the U.S. Army and stationed in Korea.

Upon returning to Syracuse, he attended Syracuse University where he studied microbiology on the GI Bill.

In 1957 he was 24 years old, a father of two, a full-time student, working 25 hours a week as a janitor in an off-campus apartment building and running for the Dutch team in his spare time.

During his sophomore year, when his hectic schedule kept him from training with the team, his coach gave him an ultimatum: practice more often or leave the team.

“So I quit,” he said in 1991. “I gave the person in the locker room my running shoes, changed shoes and walked two and a half miles to work.”

After graduating with a BS, he worked as a pharmacology research technician at SUNY Upstate Medical Center. Fanny taught elementary school for the Syracuse School District.

He and Fanny had three more children.

Branch’s life changed forever in 1959 when his mother Ethel bought a brand new Cadillac.

“But she couldn’t drive it one bit,” he told The Post-Standard in 2003. “I took it upon myself to teach her how to drive.”

Then he taught his sister.

“I thought to myself, if I have to do this,” he thought, “I should get paid.”

In 1963, while still working as a pharmacological research technician, he started Branch’s Driving School with a Ford Falcon and $800 borrowed from his mother.

It was one of the first black-owned businesses in Syracuse, The Post-Standard said in 2004, and perhaps one of the most successful.

Eventually, the driving school grew to more than a dozen locations, a fleet of seven vehicles and a staff of 22 employees who Branch affectionately calls “Mr. B.”

Branch started in the middle of the civil rights movement and faced challenges because of his skin color.

“People felt that racism only existed in the South,” he recalled in 2003. “But we had it here too. It was difficult to start a business as a minority. The day I got my driver’s license (to run a driving school), I drove down the street with my sign and was followed by the police commissioner.”

Many local insurance companies refused to cover his business.

“I was the first minority to start a school like this in Syracuse,” he said in 2006. “I had no guidance, no role model. I had to investigate how I could start a company myself and I did that.”

His son Deraux, who took over the company in 1995, started helping with the books and ledgers at the age of 14.

“I’m a numbers person,” he said last week. He built a database showing that Branch’s driving schools taught about 800,000 new drivers between 1963 and 2017.

They taught older, novice drivers, especially widows who had always relied on their husbands for transportation, and immigrants.

“What I’m really proud of is that we’ve worked with people all over the world,” Branch once said. “Some who have never been in a car.”

He hired a diverse workforce and was able to communicate with people from all over the world.

“My father taught himself a little French and Italian by watching TV. He took Spanish in high school,” Deraux said. “He even spoke a little Arabic, he knew ‘left’, ‘right’, ‘stop’ and ‘go.’”

Deraux said some Arab men did not feel comfortable with their wives sitting alone in a car with a male instructor. During lessons they often sat in the backseat. Branch reassured them by speaking to them in Arabic.

Branch’s Driving School was contracted to provide driver training for Syracuse Schools for several years and had offices in Shoppingtown and Great Northern Mall.

When Branch was asked in 1995 what his philosophy was for running a successful business, he said:

“Make sure you treat the customer right. Give customers good service, because they form the basis of the company. If the customer is satisfied, you can continue to exist.”

Branch served on the Board of Directors of Housing Visions and Centro and was elected President of the Central City Businessman’s Association. He and his staff volunteered with Habitat for Humanity.

He was an active member of Hopps Memorial CME Church before moving to South Carolina. He served as treasurer of the church for many years, as well as the Board of Stewards and Ministry to Men.

At age 56, in 1989, he returned to track and started running again for the first time since his days at SU.

He competed in a number of Empire Senior Games and won medals in the 100 and 800 meter sprints.

“I had the opportunity to show not only my children but also my grandchildren how I used to do it,” he said in 1991.

Andrew Branch is survived by his wife of 69 years, Fanny, three sons, Charles “Chuck” Branch, Todd Branch (Cindy) of Syracuse, and Deraux of South Carolina, one daughter, Della “DeeDee” Branch Bullock (Paul), sisters Louise Walker, Ethelmae Dunham, Mamie Rhodafox and Eva Dixon, nine grandchildren, 18 great-grandchildren, two great-great-grandchildren and a host of nieces, nephews, cousins ​​and friends.

His daughter Teresa Branch died in 2011.

In lieu of flowers, donations to the family may be sent to Della Branch Bullock at 436 Thurber St., Syracuse, NY 13210 or to Cashapp at $DellaBranchBullock.