Farewell to 'Mr. Apple Valley'

Apple Valley was a new concept when Willis Branning attended the city council meeting at a barn on Cedar Avenue in January 1969.

Today, the barn is gone. Perhaps fittingly, it gave way to an expansion of Cedar Avenue in the 1980s.

But Branning, who colleagues refer to as Mr. Apple Valley and Mr. Transit, is just now beginning to let thoughts of that busy thoroughfare subside. After decades in public office, he's retiring from the Dakota County board when his term expires at the end of the year.

At 71, he said, his career as an elected official has been long enough.

"There's going to be a real void at this table, this dais," Commissioner Tom Egan said after Branning announced his retirement. "You have very, very big shoes that are going to be difficult to fill."

Branning moved from Seattle to Minnesota with his family in the summer of 1964 to take a job as an engineer at Univac.

They had been house hunting in Savage when the owner of the motel where they stayed in the interim mentioned the new Orrin Thompson housing development in what was then Lebanon Township.

Little did he know how much he would help shape his new community.

Branning helped found a local chapter of the Jaycees, and he ran for the city council when Apple Valley incorporated as a village in 1969.

He served in Apple Valley government, sometimes as council member, sometimes as mayor, with a few breaks in between, until he joined the county board in 1997.

"Wherever you look around town, Will's fingerprints are all over the place in a positive sense," said Tom Goodwin, an Apple Valley council member since the 1980s.

He credits Branning for having the foresight to include a "ring road" around what would become the downtown commercial district.

Over the decades, Branning has also played a role in everything from redevelopment of gravel mines and growth of suburban bus service to construction of city recreational facilities and establishment of the Minnesota Zoo, one of the southern suburbs' biggest attractions.

"If you're going to move into a community and there's nothing there, you have to make it," Branning said. "That's kind of where I came from."

He's the first tell you he didn't always agree with everyone, but those who have worked with Branning praise him for his ability to work through challenges without losing sight of his broader goals.

"When the going gets tough, he just doesn't get upset," Joe Harris, a longtime Dakota County Commissioner, said. "You rarely have ever seen Will Branning raise his voice."

Asked for an example of Branning at his best, people point to the busway on Cedar Avenue, a project decades in the making and the first of its kind in the Twin Cities metro. It was Branning who kept it on the agenda, shepherding dozens of people and government agencies toward the goal of a south suburban transitway.

"No matter when that transit line gets launched, it will be to your credit," Nancy Schouweiler, the board chairwoman, said to him.

Beverley Miller, executive director of the Minnesota Valley Transit Authority, said Branning's dedication to transit has been instrumental in propelling projects forward.

"He's one of the best meeting-goers I've ever met in my life," Miller said. "I'll see him at 9 in the morning and he'll say, 'I've already been to two meetings.' Try and keep up with him. He's excited about it."

Branning has no plans to leave Apple Valley in retirement, save an annual midwinter vacation to Hawaii, which he's taken every year for 50 years.

He'll spend time with his wife, Judy, whom he credits as a constant supporter, wise guide and excellent baker who supplied cookies to many a meeting. And his children and grandchildren know that they're welcome to come any Thursday night for pizza, a family tradition going back decades.