An Invitation

Dear Ones,

As the logistical pieces for Brad Brown’s memorial service are being completed, we want to extend a heartfelt invitation for you to join us in California for the service as well as the remembrance gathering that will follow. Even if you are planning to attend a gathering in your local community to honor Brad, please consider attending the services in California. It would mean a great deal to Anne Brown and Brad’s entire family to have as many More To Life students as possible at the celebration of this man who has contributed so much to so many.

Here is the most current information to help make it possible for you to attend.

The memorial service and celebration of Brad’s life will be held at 11:00 a.m. on September 8, 2007, at St. Anselm’s Episcopal Church in Lafayette, California.

The remembrance gathering will be held from 1:00 p.m. until 4:00 p.m. at Scott’s Seafood Restaurant, located 1333 N. California Boulevard in Walnut Creek. The restaurant is slightly more than 5 miles from St. Anselm’s.

Click here for information pertaining to hotel rooms, travel from the airports, websites, shuttle and taxi reservations.

In order to accommodate everyone in both the service and the remembrance gathering, we would like to know if you are coming. Please check this Excel spreadsheet for a list of More To Life attendees as of Aug. 27. If your name is not on the list and you will be attending, please RSVP to Briggy Kiddle at briggy.kiddle@moretolife.org.

We hope to see you there.

With love,

Peggy

Brad's Obituary

K. Bradford Brown of Walnut Creek, California, passed away on August 10, 2007 after a courageous battle with Lewy Body Dementia. He was 78 years old. A true warrior of the spirit, he faced his illness with tremendous grace, fortitude and humor.

Brad was born in Reno, Nevada to Jeanne and Irvine Brown. He grew up in the Bay Area and despite traveling widely throughout the world, his favorite place was on his sailboat in the San Francisco Bay.

Brad lived a full and immensely rich life. He received a Master of Divinity from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, and a PhD in Clinical Psychology from United States International University in San Diego. He served as rector of All Souls Episcopal Church in Berkeley for five years and also, St. Edwards in San Jose and St. Barnabas in Arroyo Grande.

A true humanitarian, Brad marched from Selma to Montgomery with Dr. Martin Luther King during the civil rights movement of the 1960’s. With his wife Anne, he set up the Institute for Family and Human Relations in Los Gatos.

It was as co-founder and Trainer for the Life Training Personal Development Program that Brad made the largest contribution towards peace and reconciliation worldwide. Through his unique teachings and insight, he touched the lives of countless people, earning the love, admiration and respect of all those with whom he came into contact, from Maasai Warriors to NASA scientists.

A role model, father figure and mentor, Brad was instrumental in transforming the lives of hundreds of thousands. With his unconditional love of the human spirit, Brad enabled those he met to deepen their connection with life as it is. Even though he is no longer physically with us, his indomitable spirit lives on and will continue to inspire and enlighten people for many generations to come.

Brad had a lifelong love of sailing and spent a year cruising in Mexico and on the East coast. He was also an accomplished trumpet player, forming his own dance band, “Brad Brown and his men about town.” An aspiring writer, Brad published a number of books.

Brad is survived by many who continue his legacy. He will be especially missed by his wife, Dr. Anne Chalfant Brown of Walnut Creek, California; his former wife, Sara Marks Brown; his sister, Joanne MacAlpine of Claremont; his daughter, Linda Jurasek and husband Rob of Pioneer; sons, Richard of Auburn, Christopher and wife, Christi of Pleasant Hill, Joel and Kyle of Walnut Creek, and eight grandchildren. He was pre-deceased by his first wife, LoRayne and his son, Kenneth.

Thank you to the all the medical staff who contributed to Brad’s care in the final months.

A memorial service and celebration of Brad’s life will be held at 11:00am on September 8, 2007 at St. Anselms Episcopal Church, Lafayette. A private cremation took place on August 24, 2007.

In lieu of flowers, donations in the memory of Brad Brown may be made to the non-profit Kairos Foundation, 1508 Coleman Road, Suite 110, Knoxville, TN 37909.

Memorial service for Brad Brown

A memorial service for Brad Brown will be held on Saturday, September 8, 2007 at 11:00 a.m. at St. Anselm’s Episcopal Church. St. Anselm’s is located at 682 Michael Lane in Lafayette, CA 94549.

A reception will follow at a location to be announced.

You can find St. Anselm’s website at http://www.stanselms.ws

I’ve heard from several friends and colleagues that they are planning on traveling to California for the service. I greatly look forward to seeing many of you there.

If you’re unable to attend, you may want to consider holding a local gathering of More To Life students to honor Brad’s life and his lasting and unique contributions.

With gratitude,

Peggy

Update and a Request for Photos

First of all, thank you for your eloquent expressions of gratitude and grief. Stirring, thought-provoking and connecting, all.

A date is still forthcoming for the memorial service to be held in California. There are several factors at play, including taking various calendars into consideration. You may be aware that Evolution of Mastery in the U.K. was underway last week, led by Richard Perry and Briggy Kiddle, and Seven Days of Creation is now beginning, led by Sue Oldham and Pascale Ascher. Additionally, finding fitting venues for the service and reception has been somewhat of a challenge.

I promise to email the details for the service and post them here as soon as they are known.

In the meantime, I have a request. If you have a particularly good or candid or “very Brad” picture of Brad (by himself or with others), we’d love a scanned copy of it, please, to add to the archives of this very important part of our history. If you will, please email your scanned files to Maggie Spooner at maggie.spooner@moretolife.org Thank you, Maggie and David, in advance for your work with these precious photos.

With great appreciation for you all! Peggy

An Update

Dear friends,

This is to let you know that arrangements for Brad’s memorial service in California are not yet firm. As soon as they are, I’ll post the particulars here as well as emailing them out to our various locations.

Thank you so very much to all who have shared in the comments section. Please continue! It’s balm to our collective spirit.

Peggy

The passing of Brad Brown

I am saddened to give you the news that Dr. K. Bradford Brown, co-founder of the More To Life program and beloved teacher, died in his sleep last night, possibly due to complications connected with the Lewy Body disease from which he was suffering. Many of you know that Brad has been ill for quite some time, but his health went into a steep decline in just the last few days.

Sue Oldham spent time with him yesterday and she said he seemed particularly lucid and peaceful when she left him.

Recently, Sue said that he seemed to know the end was not far away. But then Brad often seemed to ‘know’ more than other people about many things.

Many of you were fortunate enough to know Brad personally. Others of you may have never met him in person, but I would suggest that you do, in fact, know him.

We know him through the gifts we’ve been given through our participation in this program. We know him through his generosity and ‘for-ness’ and love of humanity. We know him through his brilliance and guidance and deep coursework.

At times like this, I often pick up one of Brad’s books to see what insight might be offered. Here are his words from Guidelines to Spirituality:

Being truly human

without any add-ons

is a way

of thinking

about divinity.

Brad’s life was about pointing toward the divinity and helping us trust our own humanity enough so that the divinity can shine through. In the coming days, I'm sure many of us will be connecting and sharing of his unique impact on our lives.

I’ll post more details and information, of course, as they become known. In the meantime, please hold Anne Brown and their family in your hearts.

Peggy

Belated Thank You

For at least a year now, Tom Parish has been encouraging me to start a blog. He's reasoned and cajoled, he's provided articles and statistics showing the benefits of blogging in organizations, he's offered his experience and know-how...

You get the picture. It took quite a while for me to be willing to take the leap, compose that first post and hit the "Publish" button. Whew!

Tom is quite the Internet marketing guru / blogger / commentator. Many of you also know Tom through Sharon Parish or perhaps through the blog that he created following her illness and death. Tom is a good friend and a fine man who is dedicated to doing his part to create an inheritable world.

Tom, thank you for your gentle persistence.

I also want to acknowledge Jenny Meadows, a friend of mine for 23 years! Jen is an excellent copy editor by trade and an advanced student of our program. She has helped me with the intricacies of posting several times already - sometimes quite late at night. She almost always has a "sure, I can do that" response for me. Thanks, Jen!

And Michael Leggett, our very own Google guy (yes, he works there). He's given us some excellent pointers on building the blog template. I appreciate you, Michael, and your many contributions over the years.

I've been meaning to write this post for several weeks and I'm so glad I took the time to do so before calling it a day today.

The expression of gratitude...there's really nothing like it, is there?

Peg