BUCK CREEK TOWNSHIP — Melvin Branson, who served as township trustee for 42 years, died early Tuesday at age 78.
Those who knew and worked with him say they’ll remember his dedication to his family and leading the growth of fire protection in the township.
He died around 3 a.m. Jan. 5 after a battle with pulmonary fibrosis, a lung disease.
He was first elected Buck Creek Township trustee in 1978. The lifelong Republican was in the middle of his 11th term, which ends next year.
His son, Mike Branson, said he was a great father and husband and that the only thing that came close to his love for his family was his love for his community. Melvin Branson is also survived by his wife, Connie; daughters, Monica Dunn and Micole Chatman; nine grandchildren; and one great-granddaughter.
Mike Branson said his father moved to Buck Creek Township around 1965 and got married not long after. The couple bought a lot and built a house that he lived in the rest of his life.
Not long after getting married, Melvin Branson joined the township’s fire department.
One day, while working as an engineer at Regency Electronics, a maker of radios used in the emergency services field, he got a call from his wife about a possible fire in their home. As he raced home, he was blocked by farm equipment on the road. The farmers, who served on the township’s fire department, cleared the equipment and accompanied him.
Luckily, the scare just turned out to be a dryer malfunction, but his interactions with those firefighters helped spark his interest in local fire service. He joined as a volunteer at a time when the department had one engine and a hearse for transporting patients, Mike Branson said of his father.
Dave Sutherlin joined Buck Creek Township’s fire department in the late 1970s, about a decade after Melvin Branson did. Sutherlin has been the department’s chief since 2006.
“His concern was always trying to have the proper staffing and the proper tools for the fire department to have to bring service to the public that we serve,” Sutherlin said of Melvin Branson.
And he did it in a financially efficient, fiscally conservative and analytical way, Sutherlin continued.
Jack Negley, who’s been on the Buck Creek Township Advisory Board for two years and serves as its president, agreed.
“Mel was a good leader for the fire department,” Negley said. “He knew the system and how to get things done with the best interest of the taxpayer.”
Sutherlin recalled how Melvin Branson took advantage of federal revenue sharing available to the township.
“That began a trail of progress for us on equipment that was just outstanding,” Sutherlin said.
The department moved to having career staff in the late 1980s. In the early 1990s, it hired its first group of firefighters working 24-hour shifts. Melvin Branson also led the township through the construction of a new fire station on West County Road 100N in 1994 and one near Indianapolis Regional Airport in 2009.
“He was the guy that managed all that growth,” Sutherlin said of the late township trustee.
Today, the department has grown to 21 career personnel, 17 volunteers and 17 part-time firefighters.
“We’re just appreciative to have his service over the years, and we can say it was a job well done,” Sutherlin said.
Mike Branson said even as his father was in intensive care at Hancock Regional Hospital and then at home for hospice care, his concerns remained with tasks like ensuring the township’s firefighters and bills were paid, working on the purchase of a new fire truck and taking calls for poor relief.
The trustee also had a good sense of humor, Mike Branson and Sutherlin recalled. The timing and way he delivered comments would often make people laugh, his son added.
Melvin Branson loved to travel the country with his family as well. When asked if his journeys would ever extend overseas, he’d often quip, “Why would I want to do that? There’s things I haven’t seen here in Buck Creek Township,” Mike Branson remembered.
His interest in his community also extended to serving on Hancock County’s plan commission, helping with his son’s Boy Scouts troop, being a member of Mt. Comfort United Methodist Church and attending many Lincoln Day dinners for the Republican Party.
Negley will assume trustee duties on an interim basis until the county’s Republican Party selects Branson’s successor. Janice Silvey, the county’s Republican Party chair, could not be reached by the Daily Reporter’s deadline Tuesday.
