Bruce Brown ’52

Bruce BrownIt is with acute sadness that I tell you my beloved husband Dr. Bruce Scott Brown (class of 1952) died in my arms on October 18, 2015.  He’d had a cancerous kidney removed exactly one year earlier, and I thought we were home free, though probably he knew otherwise.  That accursed disease lurks.  Four months later other smaller cancers showed up on X-ray, and Bruce began chemotherapy.  But in the end, it was pulmonary fibrosis that took his life.  To have the one person you love most in the world die in your arms in his hospital bed is sad beyond the telling.

Bruce and I were married when we were but twenty-one years old.  Our wedding pictures show two young people, madly in love, clutching each other’s hand as we, beaming, emerged from the Church.  We were eighteen when we met.  It was love at first sight.  We loved each other so much for so long.  Well, he was a wonderful guy.

After Williston, Bruce was drafted into the Army in the middle of his sophomore year at Syracuse University.  After a year’s special training, he was to be sent to Germany.  That’s when we got married.  My Dad arranged passage for me on the S.S. United States so I could join him.  At dusk, when the ship arrived at Bremerhaven, I spied a lone person on the pier huddled up against the cold.  It was Bruce.  He was dressed in a hodgepodge of borrowed clothing.  He hated the Army so much, he would not greet me in uniform.

When I cleared customs, and we were together again, he took me to where we would spend the night.  The only room he could find at the last minute was upstairs over a bar.  If we stood on our bed and opened the tiny window above it, cigarette smoke just poured in from below.  The one bathroom was down the hall.  Women went in and out of it all night long.  Years later, innocents that we were, it occurred to us he had booked a room in a whorehouse.

We lived in Germany for one year, traveled to ten countries.  That was 1955.  When we returned home, and he was discharged, Bruce decided to repeat his sophomore year at Syracuse University, and went on to graduate with honors.  We lived in Married Students‘ Housing in those days, had our first child, a son Chris.  Then we moved to Rochester, NY where we still live.  Bruce had been accepted at the University of Rochester Medical School, and he achieved his M.D. in 1962.  We had by then a baby daughter, Beth, later a second son, Oliver.  After Bruce was handed his medical degree at graduation and I watched him shake hands with the presenter, I was teary all day.  It was because I had a new name:  Mrs. Dr. Bruce Brown.  And the toughest years were over.

Bruce loved Pathology.  For forty years he was Director of Pathology at The Genesee Hospital in Rochester, now boarded up.  He held this position until he retired, yet continued to work part time at another hospital until he decided he wanted to play tennis more than he wanted to look through a microscope.

Bruce was generous, kind, honest, truthful, honorable, and loving.  In fact, after he died, and I had arranged not a funeral but a “Remembrance” at the University of Rochester Chapel, the building was packed with friends, some of whom had come hundreds of miles just to say into the microphone what they had loved about Bruce.  We laughed, we sighed, we wept salt tears.  It was two and a half hours before the last person spoke, a joyous celebration of a fine man’s life.

It will be a long time before I come to terms with losing Bruce — if I ever do.  On reflection, though, I realize he and I were blessed all our lives together.  We worked hard, we achieved our goals, we raised three fine, loving children, and have three fine, loving grandchildren.  We had a good life, a fine life, together.

I often have said, “You get back what you give in Life.”  Bruce gave of himself to all who knew him.  Everybody loved him.  He was a Prince among men, a loving husband, adored by his children, and by me.  He was the Love of my Life.

For you who did know him, keep his smiling face in your mind’s eye.  You, I, were privileged to have known such a man.

Lois (Sam)

8 thoughts on “Bruce Brown ’52”

  1. I had a wonderful note from Bruce in response to my letter. It was dated March 9; he mentioned the kidney removal and chemo; his tone was very optimistic. I remember our “growing up” Williston years together; he was a wonderful person and a great classmate/friend.
    My best wishes to his wife Lois (“Sam”) and family.

    1. Thank you, Bob. He didn’t tell me he had gone back to Williston in his heart early last year. It was an important place for him, as it gave him the “roots” he didn’t have at home. And Williston was where we fell in love, head over heels in love, on the parlor divan in Mrs. Lovely’s boarding house. I had come to spend a weekend with him when we were both 18. And that was that! We were a couple from then on.

  2. Dear Sam

    I have very fond memories of you and Bruce dancing in the Old gym. It was always great to see you at the reunions and hope you can make our next one as you were very much part of our class.

    Henry

  3. I recall Bruce fondly as an outstanding person in our class, and am gratified that same charastic only embellished itself every day of his life. He will sorely be missed by all who had the privelege of knowing him.

  4. Bruce was always (well, almost always!) a ray of sunshine in Ford Hall during those long winter days in Easthampton. I recall his wry sense of humor, usually dropped in with a twinkle in his eye, brightening up our school days our senior year.

    “Sam”, your heartfelt elegy was so moving; we all can only be so fortunate as to have someone as loving as yourself there to sing our praises after we are gone. Thank you for sharing your love & life with Bruce with us.

    1. Sam, Bruce and I loved each other — really loved each other — from the time we were 18. In fact, we fell in love at Mrs. Lovely’s boarding house. Bruce had invited me, and I came all the way up from Mount Vernonm NY to spend the weekend at Williston! Very daring in those days. We loved each other until the day he died. I know we were lucky to have found each other while still teen-agers. But our love for each other was solid throughout our long life together. Just lucky, I guess.

  5. Dear Lois: I just saw this after doing some internet research regarding Dr. Abbott and Dr. Tina. My condolences on the loss of your beloved husband. I worked at Genesee Hospital from 1970 to 1972 or so, as a Path Secretary. I remember working with Dr. Brown, he was always very kind and taught me many things about cells. I also recall a party we went to at your home, I don’t remember the occasion but I arrived with my then husband on his motorcycle. Ah, we were children back then. I am 67 now and living in Fallbrook, CA. My regards to you, and my prayers for the repose of Dr. Brown’s soul! Christine Berti (Schmidt)

    1. Oh Chris, I have JUST received this note from you on a Wiliston web site I set up about a year ago. Williston was the private school that Dr. Brown and his brother attended when they were teen agers. Today’s date, believe it or not, is Sunday, May 6, 2018!

      My email address is itslois@rochester.rr.com. You can always reach me through that link.

      So sorry to be so long in discovering your message sent to the wrong address.

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