Matthew Davidson Branche ’49 died on August 13, 2005, in Hartsdale, New York.

Born on October 30, 1927, in Tuskegee, AL, he prepared for college at the Boston Public Latin School in Massachusetts and entered Bowdoin in 1945, becoming a member of Delta Upsilon Fraternity. Following his graduation in 1948 as a member of the class of 1949 (and its president), he spent a year at Howard University Graduate School in Washington, DC, and then entered the Boston University School of Medicine. Following his graduation from medical school in 1953, he served as a member of the Boston City Hospital staff, first as an intern and later as a resident. From 1958 to 1960, he served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps in Korea and New York as a captain. For more than 40 years, he was a member of the faculty of Columbia University and served as an attending surgeon at Harlem Hospital Medical Center in New Rochelle and at Mt. Vernon Hospital. He was a member of the Guardsmen, the Westchester Clubmen, the Rainbow Yacht Club, and Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity and served as a member of the board of directors of the Westchester Chapter of the Urban League. In Bowdoin affairs, he was an elected member of the Alumni Council and was a member of the Board of Overseers from 1970 to 1985. He served as one of the official medical doctors for the U.S. Olympic team in the 1976 summer games, held in Montreal, Canada. Shortly before his death, he was selected as one of five inductees into the Bowdoin Athletic Hall of Honor in 2005. Surviving are his brother, George C. Branche, Jr., ’46 of White Plains, NY; his former wife, Alma Craft Branche of Sarasota, FL, whom he married in 1950; a son, Matthew D. Branche, Jr. of Carmel, NY; a daughter, Daryl R. Flowers of Burlington, VT; five grandchildren; and his friend and companion, Dr. Jacqueline L. Dunbar of Scarsdale and White Plains, NY.