John Brennan; Director of The Times Poll

John Brennan, a nationally respected polling expert who was director of the Los Angeles Times Poll for the past four years, has died. He was 41.

Brennan, who lived in Marina del Rey, died Sunday night at Midway Hospital in Los Angeles after a stroke that was related to cancer of the brain.

“John was a brilliant analyst of polling and public opinion,” said Times Editor and Executive Vice President Shelby Coffey III. “He brought insight and intensity to his work, but he also sparkled with a wry humor about the deadline demands and shifting fortunes that his polling encompassed.

“He was equally astute in devising new questions to divine attitudes and in describing trends on election night. His labors illumined us all, staffers and readers alike.”

Under Brennan’s leadership, The Times Poll conducted groundbreaking surveys of Korean Americans and Vietnamese Americans in Southern California, U.S. Roman Catholic nuns and priests and Northridge earthquake shelter occupants. He also directed coverage of presidential politics, including some of the country’s most comprehensive election day exit polls.

Educated at Boston College, Brennan began his survey research career at the Urban Institute of Washington, D.C., in 1976. Two years later he moved to New York’s Roper Organization, and from 1981 to 1983 he was with Decisions Center Inc.

At Decisions, he was a consultant to the ABC News Polling Unit for the 1982 elections, and the next year he moved to ABC full time as senior polling associate. From 1980 until 1990, he also served as a pollster for the New York Daily News.

Brennan worked with Burns Roper as director of elections for the Roper Organization in 1990.

For four years, Brennan also was host of a weekly classical jazz program on New York radio station WEVD.

He was a member of the board of directors for the Roper Center of Public Opinion Research at the University of Connecticut and a member of the American Assn. of Public Opinion Research.

Brennan is survived by his father, John W. Brennan Sr., of Ocean Grove, N.J.

Memorial services are scheduled for 4 p.m. Sunday at the Church of the Holy Nativity, 6700 W. 83rd St., Westchester.

Memorial donations may be made to the John W. Brennan Jr. Memorial Trust, P.O. Box 8901-119, Marina del Rey, Calif. 90292. The trust will make donations to his favorite charities.