One of our retired faculty members, Dr. Wally Brown passed away on August 1st. Dr. Brown was a UNC resident, adjunct faculty member, and then, from 2001 to 2015, was a full-time faculty member in the Department of Pediatrics.
Wally grew up in Oswego, NY, and was a proud graduate of St. Lawrence University. With some prodding, you could get a story about his athletic accomplishments across three sports that got him into the school’s athletics Hall of Fame. He attended medical school at the University of Rochester and spent extra time studying in a pathology laboratory, fed by his questions and desire to understand things fully. He started residency at UNC in the one-year Med/Peds program, then did a second year of Pediatrics before finishing training and service at the army base in El Paso, Texas.
In 1973, he returned to the Triangle to join Bill Hubbard at the newly opened Raleigh Pediatrics and become one of the leaders of the new UNC teaching program at Memorial Hospital of Raleigh (now WakeMed). He enjoyed caring for patients and families, but even early in his career, one of his true joys was teaching and working with residents at Wake Med in the night clinic, on the wards, and in the nursery. He was one of the primary supervisors of UNC residents there through the 1970s and 80s.
In 2001, Department Chairperson Alan Stiles recruited Drs. Brown and Bill Hubbard to join the UNC faculty full-time to work in the resident continuity clinic. Wally’s combination of practical knowledge, inquisitively searching for answers, and his joy of teaching made him a resident favorite. He created an outstanding balance of learning and fun together. Residents and junior faculty appreciated his warmth and frequently sought him out for guidance.
Starting in the late 2000s, he consistently won the Resident Teaching Award and Faculty Clinician Award, garnering the greatest number of resident votes annually. He mentored countless resident trainees and faculty members, providing invaluable professional advice and sharing wisdom about life. Even after his retirement in 2015, Wally frequently visited the Pediatric Education Office to provide mentorship for program leadership and chief residents.
He was a Renaissance person and joked that when a resident asked him a medical question he was unsure of, he would distract them by talking about the history of medicine. In addition to history, he loved teaching about immunizations and tips for communicating with pediatric patients and their parents. Everyone who has worked or trained with Wally will never forget him for his exceptional clinical acumen, advocacy for children, genuine enthusiasm for clinical teaching, and profound humility.
A service in his memory will occur on Friday, August 9th, at 3 pm at Pullen Baptist Church on Hillsborough Street in Raleigh. His obituary can be viewed at https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/newsobserver/name/wallace-brown-obituary?id=55759043.