Anthony D. Brody M.D.

Anthony Brody passed away in Peoria, Illinois on September 18th, 2019. He is survived by his wife Carol Brody, children, Paul Brody (Daniel Yost) of Woodside, Ca., Steven (Lynette) Brody of Pasadena, Ca., Rachel Brody of Stamford, Ct., David Pearson of Peoria, Sarah (Michael) Daley of Ballwin, Mo., brother Hugh Brody (Juliet Stevenson) of London, England, and grandchildren, Andrew, Oliver, Peter, Henry, Abby and Eva.

Tony was born in Sheffield, England, on September 29th, 1940. He was the older son of Dr. Hyman Brody, an eminent consultant physician, and Gertrud Brody, and Austrian refugee who managed to escape from Vienna soon after the Nazi Anschluss.

Tony was a very gifted child, excelling in all academic subjects and becoming, at a young age, and accomplished pianist. He was skillful spin bowler. At his boarding school, he played for a cup-winning cricket team and was a prominent member of a skiffle group. Between school and university he lived and worked in both Germany and Italy, and learned to speak both languages fluently.

In 1960, he won a place to study Physics at Trinity College, Oxford; in 1963 he took a first class degree, and went straight on to do a doctorate at Oxford. He became one of the new generation of scientists, researching the nature of small particles. This led to a post-doctoral research post at the European Organization for Nuclear Research in Geneva to continue his work on small particles. From there he went to the Small Particle Research Center at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. He was at the center of ground-breaking discoveries of previously unknown particles - the smallest and most basic units of energy and matter.

Before long, he was not content to be a physicist, feeling the he had other, perhaps more personally satisfying talents. He was offered a place to do nuclear medicine at Oxford but, after much soul-searching, decided in 1971, at age 31, to go instead to Sheffield University and take its full medical degree. This was a return to his childhood city, and to living near his parents - and he was thus able to have the great pleasure and benefit of sharing his new intellectual journey with his physician father.

In 1976, he moved to Denver, Colorado to complete an Internal Medicine Residency and a Fellowship in Cardiology. Six years later, he moved to Peoria, and became a founding member of Central Illinois Cardiologists which was renamed the Illinois Heart Institute, serving as President from 1991-1993.

Tony was a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, President of the Proctor Hospital Medical Staff, and President of the Proctor Health Care Foundation. He served as Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Illinois College Of Medicine in Peoria. He was a board member at the Institute of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. He spent part of one summer as a medical volunteer in Haiti.

After his retirement from cardiology, Tony continued to work at Caterpillar Inc. Wellness Clinic. He volunteered as instructor and mentor of medical students at the College of Medicine.

Tony lived a life of humility and love for others. He had an extraordinary capacity for work, yet he maintained many other interests. He read widely and voraciously. He managed to keep abreast of developments in both small particle physics and astronomy - about which he gave occasional talks, sharing his unusual grasp of new theories about the origins of the universe and the complexities of formation and dissolution of stars. He was an avid skier, and an enthusiastic fly-fisherman.

A Memorial Service will be held at 12pm on Monday, September 23rd, 2019 with a visitation beginning at 10am at Davison-Fulton-Woolsey-Wilton Funeral Home, 2408 W. Willow Knolls Dr., Peoria, IL.

Memorial Contributions may be made to the American Heart Association or OSF Hospice.