ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. - When asked to describe his late wife, Dale, retired non-commissioned Army and Air Force officer Greg Branch paused, reflecting for a moment before smiling and leaning forward in the seat he'd taken in the coffee shop in Abingdon, Md.
"She was beautiful," he said. "She was vivacious, she was full of life, she was an avid softball player, so we had the whole baseball thing in common. She was all about family. Her family values were very high. And the best thing about her was she loved me."
After she passed away from colon cancer on Oct. 12, 2006, Branch, a native of Baltimore City and a 28-year military veteran formerly stationed at APG, established the Dale Talley Branch Foundation (DTBF) to give back to his community and keep his wife's memory alive.
"Once Dale had passed, to help me mourn, it was about doing something for her," Branch said, "so that's when I created Dale Talley Branch Foundation. The Dale Talley Branch Foundation is all about helping people. … It's basically to help anyone in need."
DTBF aims to help disadvantaged children and families in the Baltimore metropolitan area by providing college scholarships to local high school seniors, holding fundraisers and hosting annual Christmas dinners in the city. The foundation sponsors youth baseball teams and maintains a youth mentoring program at Dr. Rayner Browne Elementary Middle School in Baltimore, attempting to engage children in activities in which they otherwise would be unable to participate and counsel them on making healthy life choices.
"People in the mentoring program, I teach them how to be positive and how to dream, that everything starts with a dream," Branch said.
DTBF partners include Baltimore-based organizations A Circle of Positive Black Men, B'moreFree Programs Inc., Baltimore City Health Department Safe Streets Program and the Bea Gaddy Family Center, all of which work together on fundraising and other events.
As part of the organization's mission to help those in need, DTBF awards two college scholarships to graduating high school seniors of Baltimore's Paul Laurence Dunbar High School -- the alma mater of both Branch and his wife -- each May. Branch makes scholarship recipient selections based on letters he receives from individuals in the Baltimore metropolitan area. Each award is given to help defray tuition costs.
DTBF's annual Christmas dinner, a growing success, also fed more than 4,000 people within the Baltimore region in 2013.
Because Branch considers this organization a tribute to his wife, DTBF scholarships and dinners are funded strictly by way of Branch's personal money and his Talley-Ho DRB Sportswear company.
"Honestly, this whole foundation is to keep her alive to me," Branch said. "When I see somebody come and get the Dale Talley Branch Foundation Award or there's a report on Dale Talley Branch Foundation, to my children and me, that keeps her alive. That's important."
Greg and Dale's life together is certainly a love story for the ages. Having met at age 13, they eloped in high school and spent 30 years of marriage together. In terms of age, the two were also only a month and a day apart.
"It was fate," Branch said. "I was at practice playing baseball and she was with her cousin. Someone introduced me, and the first time I looked at her, I said that day I was gonna marry her. I looked into her eyes and said, 'I'm gonna marry you,' and she was like, 'Pshh, get outta my face.' But I looked into her eyes and said, 'I'm gonna marry you,' and that was it."
Branch said no one knew of the couple's secret marriage, but from the time they said, "'I do," everything in their lives was about being together.
After graduating from high school, Branch joined the Army in 1977. While preparing to retire, Branch was stationed at APG for a year as he prepared to leave the Army. He subsequently joined the Army Reserve and then the Air Force before fully retiring from the military in 2005.
During his 28-year military career, Branch served in countries such as Germany, England, South Korea and Turkey, and was deployed to Afghanistan in 2002 for six months as a member of the U.S. Air Force Accident Investigation Board.
As a member of the Army Reserve, Branch also worked as a Major League Baseball scout for the Florida Marlins, the Baltimore Orioles, the New York Mets and the Kansas City Royals and is a former team member of the Minnesota Twins. He remains an active member of the Mid Atlantic Scouts Association, a baseball group containing both former and current Major League Baseball scouts, and is a former baseball coach of Dunbar High School and a former coach and teacher of Baltimore City Community College.
Branch, however, said he wouldn't have been able to do so much in his life without the military.
"Everything I've done started with the military," Branch said. "The military put me in to play a little baseball, to coach at the college level and to teach at the college level. The reason I went into the Reserves is to do all these things. At the same time, I'm STILL military. I'm military all the way. Matter of fact, when I go in and talk to children, I tell a lot of kids today that's basically the route, if you don't know what to do, you should try to go into the military."
Along with maintaining DTBF, Branch also travels around Baltimore and speaks to youth at local schools about growing into people they will one day be proud of.
The Branches had three daughters together -- Latavia, Shaquanda and Qiana -- and Branch said he plans to remain living in Harford County.
Branch said he would never have been able to accomplish what he has without the support of his wife standing beside him.
"She did everything for me," he said. "[The foundation] put my wife's name in lights. It's good trying to honor somebody and doing the right thing. … If she hadn't passed, I don't know if I would be doing this. It helps me cope. This is what keeps me from going crazy. People ask me, 'Greg, how do you mourn? Are you still mourning?' I'll mourn the rest of my life. But it's about keeping her alive."
DTBF will be hosting an Over-40 basketball game in August at Madison Square Recreation Center in Baltimore. For more information about upcoming DTBF events or about how to get involved, visit the foundation's website at www.daletalleybranch.org .
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