brandon lepowBrandon Lepow, a White House spokesman who volunteered for Barack Obama's campaign for the Texas primary in 2008, died Oct. 12 after a two-year battle with leukemia. He was 32.

President Obama called Lepow "hardworking, cheerful, one of the most unfailingly kind and gracious people I've had the honor to know."

Lepow moved up from volunteer to media advance man for Obama and later became a regional communications director for the White House. He departed for Facebook in 2013 and served as policy communications manager.

Added Obama: "To know Brandon Lepow was to know that he didn’t need to get into politics to change the world, after all. He made his thirty-two years count. And those of us who knew him are better for it."

Lepow is survived by his wife, Theresa, and parents, Kenny Lepow and Cindy Schmerin.