Release Date: June 18, 2002
Statement from the Family of J. Carter Brown
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.
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