J Carter Brown - Former Head of US Fine Arts Commission

[Erik L.]

WASHINGTON (AP) - J. Carter Brown, who oversaw the development of a host of
monuments and architectural attractions - including the Vietnam Memorial - in
the nation's capital, is dead at 67.

Brown, former director of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts who also headed the
National Gallery for 23 years, died Monday at Brigham and Women's Hospital in
Boston after a six-week battle with a blood cancer, his family said in a
statement.

Brown resigned from the commission and more than a dozen other arts and
education boards on May 21, when he was hospitalized for lung ailments that
followed treatment for multiple myeloma.

The family issued a statement saying that he ``became quickly known within the
hospital for his strength of spirit and determination in the face of such heavy
treatment.'' Brown was in the company of family members at the time of his
death, the statement said.

A White House statement said President Bush and the first lady were saddened at
the news.

``Carter had a profound influence on the arts and architecture of Washington,
increasing the prominence of the National Gallery of Art and presiding over
some of the most significant developments to our nation's capital,'' Bush said.
``He committed his life to service and will be sorely missed.''

Earl A. Powell III, director of the National Gallery of Art, said Brown ``was a
gifted and brilliant director who served the nation and the world of art with
unparalleled commitment and leadership and has left a great legacy.''

Brown's handiwork is visible in major additions and countless minor revisions
to the National Mall and the surrounding landscape.

``He really had a profound influence on the way the city looks,'' said Richard
Moe, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Jan C. Scruggs, founder of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, remembers how
Brown stood up to critics who feared the wall of names of the dead would be too
stark and uninspiring.

``It doesn't matter how many Congress members or senators or calls from the
White House he gets,'' Scruggs said. Under Brown, the commission ruled on
design issues with ``a kind of immunity, like a separate branch of
government.''

Brown also was known for attention to detail. Scruggs said that in April, as
the Vietnam Memorial's staff and arts commission members studied three
proposals for replacing worn-out lights, only Brown realized that one system
would produce a whiter light that ``brought out the names and the overall
ambiance of the wall in a spectacular fashion. ... It's a sort of genius.''

Moe said Brown combined ``extraordinary aesthetic sensibility with practical
good sense.''

In 2001, in an opinion piece for The Washington Post, Brown defended the
commission's controversial decisions on the design and placement of a World War
II monument to be built on the National Mall.

``People hate change; there has always been controversy about memorials,''
Brown wrote, noting ``many fought tooth and nail against Maya Lin's Vietnam
Memorial design.''

``My prediction,'' he went on, ``is that when the World War II Memorial is
completed, and future generations have absorbed it as part of their Washington
experience, it will be greatly loved.''

Brown's panel also oversaw the Korean War and Franklin D. Roosevelt memorials
from start to finish.

Most of his tenure as arts commission chairman coincided with his 23-year
service as director of the National Gallery of Art. Brown oversaw construction
of its angular East Wing, by renowned architect I.M. Pei. He greatly expanded
the museum's collections and had a gift for grand shows designed to attract a
wider audience.

After leaving the gallery in 1992, Brown helped found Ovation, a cable
television network devoted to the arts. He also directed the ``Rings'' exhibit
of international artwork at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

``I come from a great line of preachers. I believe in the arts, and I have a
sort of messianic zeal about broadening their audience,'' Brown told The New
York Times in 1996.

Born John Carter Brown in Providence, R.I., in 1934, he was scion to the
wealthy family that founded Brown University. Brown, however, graduated from
Harvard and prepared for a career in arts administration by studying in
Florence, Italy, Paris, the Netherlands and New York University's Institute of
Fine Arts.

He became assistant to the director of the National Gallery of Art in 1961,
then director in 1969. Brown was appointed chairman of the fine arts commission
by President Nixon in 1971 and continued to serve as gatekeeper of the
capital's public art under the next six presidents. He has been called the pope
of public art, the Supreme Court of Washington architecture.

Brown is survived by two children, his son Jay and daughter Elissa, a brother,
Nicholas Brown, and sister, Angela Fischer.

A memorial service will be held June 25 in Providence, R.I., the family
statement said, and a memorial service at National Cathedral in Washington will
be scheduled.

It's a great day for hockey. - Badger Bob Johnson
Erik L.