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Release Date: June 18, 2002
At five o’clock p.m. on Monday, June 17th, J. Carter Brown died in the loving arms of his family–his daughter Elissa Brown, his son Jay Brown and his fiancée Anne Hawley. This occurred at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston after six weeks of intensive care for pulmonary failure. He received extreme unction from Father King of the Church of the Advent in Boston.
Carter was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma, a terminal blood cancer, in August 2000. He chose an aggressive treatment, autologous stem cell transplant, which he underwent in January 2001. He lived well and vigorously after his treatment until he was hospitalized at Brigham and Women’s on May 3rd 2002 for extreme shortness of breath.
For six weeks he fought extraordinarily hard to heal his failing lungs, a condition that came upon him suddenly in late April from a cause not yet fully understood, but thought to be a combination of viral infection and damage from the radiation necessitated by his cancer treatment.
For someone undergoing such intensive treatment he became quickly known
within the hospital for his strength of spirit and determination in the
face of such heavy treatment.
His positivity, hopefulness, passion for life and all his many projects
and his love of his family buoyed him during this time. Although heavily
sedated in his last weeks he would communicate through facial movements
his thoughts and preferences, and was often playful and funny. He was
also the first ICU patient the medical staff had ever seen conducting
business from an ICU by fax, phone, and email.
During his hospital stay of 45 days he worked tenaciously on a book project covering the lives of his father and himself; on a design and construction project for his home; and even on keeping up with emails from the many organizations that he had been a part of before he was put into a deep, sedated sleep to heal his lungs.
He leaves his children, Jay Brown, of Washington, DC; Elissa Brown of Washington, DC; his fiancée Anne Hawley of Brookline, MA; his brother Nicholas Brown of Newport; and his sister Angela Fischer of Boston.
A memorial requiem service will be held at St. Stephen’s Church in Providence, RI on Tuesday, June 25th at 3:00 p.m. A memorial service at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC is being scheduled.
In lieu of flowers donations may be sent to the Center for Advanced Study of the Visual Arts (CASVA) at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.
General Information
The National Gallery of Art and its Sculpture Garden, located on the National Mall between 3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Ave. NW, are open Monday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. The Gallery is closed on December 25 and January 1. For information call (202) 737-4215 or the Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TDD) at (202) 842-6176, or visit the Gallery’s Web site at www.nga.gov.
Visitors will be asked to present all carried items for inspection upon entering. Checkrooms are free of charge and located at each entrance. Luggage and other oversized bags must be presented at the Fourth Street Entrance of the East or West Building to permit X-ray screening and must be deposited in the checkrooms at those entrances. Any items larger than 17 X 26 inches cannot be accepted by the Gallery or its checkrooms. For the safety of the art work and visitors, nothing may be carried into the Gallery on a visitor’s back. Any bag or other items that cannot be carried reasonably and safely in some other manner must be left at the checkrooms.
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