Just Say No Founder Quits Organization in Leadership Row

OAKLAND — The founder of the Just Say No anti-drug movement championed by Nancy Reagan has quit the organization in a dispute with its new leaders.

Joan Brann, who established the first Just Say No club and helped give a theme to the First Lady’s anti-drug crusade, resigned as national vice president and shut down the local office here.

The dispute started in February, when W. W. Abbott, senior vice president of Procter & Gamble Co., became chairman of the national Just Say No Foundation. Abbott declared that the organization was about $600,000 in debt and needed more professional management than it was getting from Brann or from Tom Adams, foundation president, who has since resigned. The board also decided that it could no longer afford to underwrite the local Just Say No office in Oakland.