Remembering Gunn Descendant Tom Braman '57

Born in Princeton, New Jersey, on December 20, 1939, Braman was the son of Ruth and Hunn Braman ’33. His paternal grandparents were Eleanor Gold Brinsmade, Class of 1903, and Hunnewell Braman, Sr. Class of 1911, and his great-grandparents were second Head of School John Brinsmade, Class of 1910, and Mary Gold Gunn Brinsmade, the only surviving child of Mr. and Mrs. Gunn. His brother, Robert G. Braman, Ph.D. ’61, uncles, Grenville Braman ’36 and William Braman ’32, and cousins, Steve Gray ’61 and Jack Braman ’66, were among the many family members who also attended Gunn.

Braman arrived at Gunn in 1955, earned varsity letters in football and basketball, was captain of the Boys Varsity Basketball team, and a member of the History and Current Affairs clubs. He received the Excellence in Biology and Most Improved Scholar Awards at Prize Night. Following his graduation from Gunn, he attended Princeton University, having received a scholarship, “but a senior year knee injury had already ended his athletic career,” his obituary said. He transferred to Franklin and Marshall College, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in history and later, a master’s in Latin American studies and a Ph.D. in Latin American history from the University of Florida. His dissertation was titled “Land and Society in Santiago de Chile 1540-1575.”

In 1964, he embarked on what would become a 42-year career with the Central Intelligence Agency. His assignments took him to more than 50 countries, and along the way he met his wife, Lillian, who, he said, “has always been my wife, best friend, partner, and colleague and has made life worth living, especially during the various health issues I have faced.”

“While he enjoyed all of his CIA assignments, he frequently reminisced about meeting his future wife in South America, writing his Ph.D. dissertation in post-coup Chile, being captured by insurgents during the first attack on the U.S. Embassy in Tehran during the 1979 revolution, representing U.S. intelligence liaison in the UK during the Falklands War, sleeping in former KGB Chief Lavrentiy Beria's bed in Moscow, traveling to Asia and Africa with the White House Drug Czar, being expelled from Sri Lanka during a political dispute between the President and Prime Minister of the country, and, during his first retirement, meeting, greeting and escorting friends and colleagues in Belgium. His favorite spots were Bruges and the battlefield at Waterloo,” his obituary said.

In 2024, Braman recalled that when he and Lil lived in Brussels, he spent a lot of time walking the site of the Battle of Waterloo, where nearly 20 of his ancestors from Clan Gunn, the Braman family, and his mother’s family in Scotland fought on the side of the British under the First Duke of Wellington in 1815. “I got to know the still active farmers in the area and was welcomed when I brought an American VIP to take a look at the site. Everything has been improved in the last twenty years and the historical society now owns the farms. For me personally — I was able to locate the exact spot for almost all of my ancestors during the battle — eerie,” he reflected.

Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Braman returned to the agency and served “as a trainer, analysis instructor, and military liaison officer in various countries in the Middle East, Europe, and South Asia. He had six assignments in Iraq and is one of the few CIA officers to have served in both Iran and Iraq,” according to his obituary.

Additionally, he served as Operations Center Chief on the President’s Daily Brief staff, and as a general White House staffer. A loyal Gator, he served on the Board of the University of Florida International Center following his retirement from the CIA, and assisted the Honors Program “by interviewing applicants for the Boren Scholarship, which funds the intensive study of language and culture abroad by U.S. undergraduate or graduate students,” the university said in a news article celebrating his visit to campus in 2019.

In March 2024, Braman reflected via email on his education at The Gunnery, calling it “a perfect fit” and “essential” to his future career in the CIA, particularly in terms of his writing skills. “[E]arly on in my career, CIA management discovered that I could take a mass of material and boil it down into a paragraph or two. This was a key element in the President’s Daily Brief. Presidents do not want to read forever or, as PM Margaret Thatcher once said at a briefing I attended on the Falklands conflict, ‘What’s the point of this?’ The Brits had a habit of going on and on; so my remark was, ‘You are coming to it.’ She was not amused.”

His experience at Gunn prepared him in other ways, including his ability to interact with people he met around the world. “I learned discipline and how to study. I also learned how to live with people even when you totally disagreed with their ideas. There was always common ground somewhere,” he wrote. 

Thomas Braman is survived by his wife, Lillian; his sister, Kathleen Braman Allen; his brother, Bob Braman ’61, and many friends in the U.S. and abroad. The family kindly requests that in lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made in Thomas' name to either The Frederick Gunn School (Attn: The Class of 1957 Fund), 99 Green Hill Road, Washington, CT 06793, or the Gunn Historical Museum, 5 Wykeham Road, Washington, CT 06793. Please include your name and address so the family can properly thank you.  A celebration of life will be held at a later date with family and friends.