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Geof Brown dies from cancer
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
SOCIAL worker and newspaper columnist Geoffrey 'Geof'Brown', passed away in hospital yesterday. He was suffering from lymphoma - a type of cancer that affects the white blood cells. He was 78.
Brown's professional career spanned some 55 years and several disciplines. At the time of his passing, he was a retired senior lecturer at the School of Continuing Studies at the University of the West Indies and a human resource development and management consultant. He also penned weekly columns for the Observer.
He was also serving as honorary consul for Botswana in Jamaica and was very active in his community.
"It was just very, very quick," his daughter Allison Hickling told the Observer last night. "He was diagnosed on Thursday, admitted on Friday and by this afternoon he was dead," she said.
Hickling, the youngest of Brown's five daughters, said her father had been ailing for some time but was not diagnosed for cancer. His daughter said he had a rash on his skin that wouldn't go away and then he became increasingly weak but it was the swelling of his lymph nodes that gave it away.
She described her dad as an amazing father who always put family first and who was always there when it mattered. "He was such a lovely man," Brown's widow Janet said sadly. "First of all he was my best friend and he was a wonderful father to his children."
Brown was a member of several professional organisations at home and abroad. Among them were the Jamaica Institute of Management; the Institute of Management Consultants of Jamaica and the Bid Brothers of Metropolitan Toronto in Canada. He founded the Caribbean Network for Integrated Rural Development (CNIRD) in Trinidad and was a founding board member of the Human Employment and Resource Training (HEART) National Training Agency in Jamaica.
He also worked on projects for the UNICEF, Jamaica Social Investment Fund and the Women's Centre of Jamaica Foundation.
Brown was awarded the Order of Distinction for outstanding contribution to Social and Community Development in 2004, the same year he was appointed honorary consul for Botswana.
In addition to wife Janet and daughter Allison, Brown's other children - Ann-Marie Thompson, Gennevive Kibble, Nadine Brown-Snow and Carole Bailey - and his eight grandchildren have been left to mourn his passing.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
SOCIAL worker and newspaper columnist Geoffrey 'Geof'Brown', passed away in hospital yesterday. He was suffering from lymphoma - a type of cancer that affects the white blood cells. He was 78.
Brown's professional career spanned some 55 years and several disciplines. At the time of his passing, he was a retired senior lecturer at the School of Continuing Studies at the University of the West Indies and a human resource development and management consultant. He also penned weekly columns for the Observer.
He was also serving as honorary consul for Botswana in Jamaica and was very active in his community.
"It was just very, very quick," his daughter Allison Hickling told the Observer last night. "He was diagnosed on Thursday, admitted on Friday and by this afternoon he was dead," she said.
Hickling, the youngest of Brown's five daughters, said her father had been ailing for some time but was not diagnosed for cancer. His daughter said he had a rash on his skin that wouldn't go away and then he became increasingly weak but it was the swelling of his lymph nodes that gave it away.
She described her dad as an amazing father who always put family first and who was always there when it mattered. "He was such a lovely man," Brown's widow Janet said sadly. "First of all he was my best friend and he was a wonderful father to his children."
Brown was a member of several professional organisations at home and abroad. Among them were the Jamaica Institute of Management; the Institute of Management Consultants of Jamaica and the Bid Brothers of Metropolitan Toronto in Canada. He founded the Caribbean Network for Integrated Rural Development (CNIRD) in Trinidad and was a founding board member of the Human Employment and Resource Training (HEART) National Training Agency in Jamaica.
He also worked on projects for the UNICEF, Jamaica Social Investment Fund and the Women's Centre of Jamaica Foundation.
Brown was awarded the Order of Distinction for outstanding contribution to Social and Community Development in 2004, the same year he was appointed honorary consul for Botswana.
In addition to wife Janet and daughter Allison, Brown's other children - Ann-Marie Thompson, Gennevive Kibble, Nadine Brown-Snow and Carole Bailey - and his eight grandchildren have been left to mourn his passing.
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