E Richard Brown

E. Richard (Rick) Brown, a nationally recognized public health leader who advocated for health care reform and pioneered the collection and broad dissemination of health survey data to influence policy, died Friday, April 20 2012. He was 70. As a past president of the American Public Health Association and a member of dozens of health advisory committees and boards, and through his work for two U.S. presidents (Bill Clinton and Barack Obama) and three U.S. senators (Bob Kerrey, Paul Wellstone and Bill Bradley), Brown forged a reputation for his intense determination to make health care services more accessible and more affordable to all Americans. Brown, who received his doctorate at UC Berkeley, was a professor in the departments of health services and community health sciences at UCLA's Fielding School of Public Health and founder of the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS), the nation's largest state health survey and a critical source of information for California and national lawmakers. Brown was also the founding director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, which was formed in 1994 to translate academic research into practical evidence that policy audiences and community health organizations could use in their work. He was born to Eastern European immigrant parents in a working-class community in Plainfield, N.J., and moved to Southern California at an early age. His father was a union and social-justice organizer on the East and West coasts. His ever-present generosity of spirit made him beloved by many, including his wife of 46 years, Marianne Parker Brown, his daughters Delia Brown and Adrienne Faxio, his son-in-law John Faxio, his granddaughter Makeda, and his brother Julian Horowitz.