Brandes School alumni, their children and grandchildren will find a treasure trove of photographs and other memorabilia in the archives of the Arizona Historical Society in Tucson.

Rafael “Ray” Brandes, an early leader in Tucson’s Jewish community, and his wife, Elsie, founded a boarding school in 1939 for children with asthma and other respiratory illnesses. Although there were no treatments for asthma at the time, Tucson's hot, dry climate was beneficial for those with respiratory problems. This school served children from first grade through high school.

Brandes said she visited Jewish community centers across the country to promote the school.

Joan Friedlander Reichard was a student there for four years, from 1950-54.

A native of Mobile, Alabama, she remembers traveling by train from New Orleans to Tucson with her parents when she was 8 years old. She also had movie star Roy Rogers as her passenger, and she signed copies of her Roy Rogers comic books.

Students came to Brandes School from all over the United States and Canada. Reichard said most people improved so well that they were able to return to their homes. There were also a few day students who lived in Tucson with their families.

The Brandes School became a nonprofit in 1949, and ownership was transferred to the National Asthma Children's Foundation in 1951. In 1954, Brandes and his wife left Tucson for California, and the school was renamed Saguaro School, serving elementary through middle grades. 60's.

Ms. Reichard was a teacher in the Mesa Unified District for many years until her retirement and currently lives in Tempe. Her parents moved to Arizona, “a place Joanie loved,” when Joanie attended college. Her Brandes memorabilia, donated in 2018, makes up the bulk of her AHS Brandes archives, filling five boxes.

Attending Brandes was like going to camp, she says, except there were classes that offered a great education. In her sixth grade, Reichard's teacher enrolled her in the Pima County Spelling Her Bee. She took third place.

Reichard learned to ride horses and swim, enjoyed weekend excursions to places like Colossal Cave and Nogales, and “went all the way to Phoenix for the fair,” he said, his voice booming with excitement as he recalled it.

She recalls that students at Brandes University had a great deal of freedom. That included weekly trips downtown where they could walk around in groups of two or three as long as they got back on the bus on time.

“That independence is what made me who I am today,” Reichard says.

Another student who took advantage of that freedom was the late Donald Diamond, said his daughter Helaine Levy. Diamond attended this school from 1940 to 1941 when he was 12 and when he was 13.

Levy recalled riding the Barrow to the market at Wilmot Road and Speedway Boulevard to buy Coca-Cola. He and his companions also rode horses at nearby stables.

It was Diamond's first experience living in the desert, and she said it was one of the reasons her family moved to Tucson in 1965. Diamond became a well-known Tucson real estate developer and philanthropist.

Reichard remembers the Brandes having dinner with students on Friday nights to celebrate the Sabbath. Another Brandes University alumnus, Charles “Chuck” Goldberg of Denver, recalls a time when students would go to Temple Emanu-El if they wanted to attend worship. There Rabbi Albert T. Bilgray was in the pulpit.

Goldberg said the school offered an excellent arts, crafts and music education. Goldberg also earned a sniper badge at the school's rifle range, much to the chagrin of his parents.

He said it was great that he was able to participate in swimming and other activities without having an asthma attack, adding: “It was a very happy day.”

Reichard, who helped organize the 2002 reunion in Tucson, said there are very few Brandes alumni left. However, he still keeps in touch with one of his best friends from school, Allyn Duberstein Kleiman. She was sent there from her home in Dayton, Ohio, because her parents also sent her there.

To view the Brandes School archives at the AHS Library and Archives, please call 520-617-1157 or email ahsreference@azhs.gov to make an appointment.