Barry Brown, 83, visionary South Jersey hospital executive

When Barry D. Brown was appointed CEO of  West Jersey Health System in 1973, he had plans to expand it into a larger network beyond its two hospitals, in Camden and Berlin. By the time he retired in 1995, Mr. Brown had brought the system to Voorhees and Marlton, and it subsequently grew to become the Virtua health system.

Under Mr. Brown's leadership, the system grew to be one of the largest in the country, said Virtua's current president and chief executive, Richard P. Miller, who worked for Mr. Brown for 10 years.

"Barry was a great visionary and strategic thinker. He was well ahead of his time in bringing systems together," Miller said. "West Jersey was the place to work at if you wanted to work in progressive health care."

Mr. Brown, 83, a longtime resident of Haddonfield who moved to Marlton, died Tuesday, March 7, at home. He had cancer.

Mr. Brown never gave up his attention to detail, his family said. He made his own health-care decisions in his last days, stopping treatment because he wanted to return home. While receiving hospice care, he planned his funeral, said Mr. Brown's wife, Barbara.

He handled all  he could, "including his own end," his wife said.

"I've always been in awe of him," said Mrs. Brown, who first met her husband when the two attended Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa. While there, he was a member of Phi Delta Theta and served as the fraternity's president his senior year in 1956.

The two went separate ways. Then, at their 45th college reunion, years after Mr. Brown's first wife had died, they met again and fell in love.

"I'm so glad I went to that college reunion," Mrs. Brown said. She said he especially enjoyed time with his family at their second home in Spray Beach, Long Beach Island.

Born in 1933 at the Camden hospital he later oversaw, Mr. Brown and his brother moved around with their parents, Alice and Stanley Brown, an orthopedic doctor who had served in the military during World War II, Mrs. Brown said.

They returned to Laurel Springs and then moved to Haddonfield, where Mr. Brown graduated from Haddonfield Memorial High School.

After college, Mr. Brown served in the Army Medical Service Corps from 1956 until 1958 as a first lieutenant, his wife said. He then worked for Radio Corp. of America in the Defense Electronic Products Division in 1958 and 1959, before he returned to college.

In 1961, Mr. Brown received a master of public administration degree from Cornell University.

By then, he had married his first wife, Nancy Rombach, who died in 1976. The couple had four children.

James "Jamie" Brown, the couple's youngest child, said he was 12 when his mother died. His older sister, Katherine Drew Brown, was starting college. She died last year.

"He had his hands full," James Brown said of his father's work at the hospital and caring for his children. "Those were tough days, but he maintained a strong front because he knew that's what he had to do to get us through it."

Still, he said, his father had a soft spot, striking a balance through the years. At one time, he helped his son get a hospital job while he was majoring in hotel management in college. James Brown started in housekeeping and the warehouse when his father clearly had influence to help him get a better position.

"He said, you're going to learn everything about every position because this is the way things are in life," Brown said.

Ralph Dean worked for Mr. Brown as an executive for 10 years, starting in the '70s, but remained friends with him for more than 40 years.

"He was a great boss," Dean said, noting that several others who worked for Mr. Brown left West Jersey to take executive positions at other hospitals in the state. Despite the pain of the loss of his first wife, Mr. Brown forged ahead with expansion, building a new hospital in Voorhees that has since moved to a new location. "He had the intestinal fortitude to handle many different things."

Mr. Brown began his career as  an assistant administrator at Memorial Hospital of Burlington County, Mount Holly, staying there from 1961 to 1966. He was then administrator of the West Jersey Health System's Berlin division from 1966 to 1968, and administrator of Camden and Berlin until he was named president and CEO of the system in 1973.

Mr. Brown held several board positions, including at the New Jersey Hospital Association and the American Hospital Association. He was also a member of the American College of Healthcare Executives and the American Hospital Association.

In 1992, the American Cancer Society presented Mr. Brown with the Race for Life Community Service Award.

In 1995, the Barry D. Brown Health Education Center in Voorhees was opened by Virtua in his honor.

In addition to his wife and son, Mr. Brown is survived by two other sons, twins Stanley and Stephen; five grandchildren; and one great-grandson.

Services for Mr. Brown will be Saturday, March 25, from 10 to 11:45 a.m, at Kain-Murphy Funeral Services, 15 West End Ave., Haddonfield. A memorial service will follow at noon.  Interment will be private.

Donations may be made to the Virtua Foundation, Box 70260, Philadelphia 19176-9703 or via https://foundation.virtua.org/donate