This photo of John Brandl was used for the faculty listing for the Humbert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs

John Brandl

Former federal health official and state legislator and a public policy expert, dies at 70

MINNEAPOLIS - John Brandl, a former federal health official and state legislator and a public policy expert, has died. He was 70.

Brandl died Monday at his son's home in Minnetrista after battling gastric cancer, his wife said.

Brandl joined the faculty at the University of Minnesota in 1968. He was still a professor at the university's Humphrey Institute and a distinguished professor of public policy at St. John's University at the time of his death. He was dean of the Humphrey Institute from 1997 to 2002.

Brandl, a Democrat known for bucking the prevailing orthodoxy, served in the Minnesota House from 1977-78 and 1981-86, and in the Minnesota Senate from 1987-90, representing parts of south Minneapolis.

He also served in the federal government as deputy assistant secretary at the Department of Health, Education and Welfare from 1968-69, and in positions in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Office of Economic Opportunity and the Economic Development Administration.