Robert Harold Brandow

In the early morning hours of July 17, 2021, we lost a truly remarkable and caring person. Robert Harold Brandow, age 92, passed away while sleeping peacefully at his residence in Portland Maine. Bob was born November 30, 1928, in Canandaigua New York, to parents Charles H. Brandow and Doris Kinde Brandow of Geneva New York, in the beautiful Finger Lakes region. He had a very full and active childhood, growing up in a small town during and shortly after the Great Depression. He and his brother Bill were both bright and imaginative kids, and were well known in their neighborhood for their creative and entrepreneurial endeavors aimed at generating a little spending money in those challenging times. In school, Bob excelled both academically and athletically. He was a star on the High School’s championship tennis team, and was also class valedictorian. He was an avid Boy Scout, and was eagerly working toward Eagle Scout status when he was asked to instead spend his final year in scouting as the interim Scout Master for the troop. Although he was honored to take on that responsibility, he did regret never having completed his Eagle badge. At the time, he was also spending several hours per week working at his father’s shoe store in downtown Geneva, learning business and sales skills that would come in handy during his college years.

Bob was accepted into a 5-year program at MIT that would have lead to a Master’s Degree in Biophysics; however, after learning that he had won a very competitive four-year scholarship that was good only for schools in New York State he enrolled at the University of Rochester about an hour’s drive from home. While there, he earned extra cash by selling shoes out of his dorm room, and also by delivering the New York Times to the many students who had come to the school from New York City. Toward the end of his freshman year, though, an event occurred that would forever change the direction of his life. Bob developed a severe strep infection that damaged his kidneys, and very nearly killed him. In fact, it was only the fairly recent availability of penicillin that saved his life. He spent six weeks in Strong Memorial Hospital, much of it on the “critical list”. He did eventually recover, and in typical fashion for him became quite interested in everything that was going on around him at the hospital. He came away with a clear feeling that there was much room for improvement in the way things were done in the hospital field, and the seed was planted that hospital management was the right career path for him. He went on to finish his degree at the U of R, and then landed a one-year internship at St. Luke’s Hospital in Cleveland that gave him the opportunity to spend time working in every department in the hospital. It was there that he met the young woman he would marry a year later, and with whom he would spend the next 52 years. That fall he enrolled in the new graduate degree program in Hospital Administration at Northwestern University in Chicago, which was one of only four such programs in the country at the time.

After earning his Masters Degree in Hospital Administration, Bob worked his way through increasingly more responsible positions at several hospitals, including a 5-year stint as Assistant Administrator at the F.F. Thompson Hospital in Canandaigua, the very hospital where he had been born. In 1969 he was recruited by the then Eastern Maine General Hospital to oversee and lead an extensive modernization and expansion of that ageing facility. It was a job he undertook with all his passion and energy, and the results were impressive. The newly-named Eastern Maine Medical Center was transformed into a thoroughly modern and efficient center of excellence for providing healthcare services and top-notch patient care for residents of eastern and northern Maine. During his 24 years there, Bob never wavered in his focus on doing what was best for the patients and the people of Maine. He was also a strong believer that local hospitals in the smaller towns throughout northern and eastern Maine could better serve their communities through strategic alliances with EMMC, a concept that ultimately lead to the formation of Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems (now Northern Light Health), where he served as President and CEO for the remainder of his career. Bob retired from active participation in hospital management in the fall of 1993, although he never stopped following the ongoing developments at EMMC and healthcare facilities across the country.

In addition to his many responsibilities at EMMC, he served on numerous committees and was active in several professional organizations. He was a Life Member of the American College of Healthcare Executives, and served several terms as the Maine Regent for that organization. He was also board chairman for the Maine Hospital Association and chapter president of the Healthcare Financial Management Association. He testified before the Maine Legislature on issues of hospital regulation and over the years gave presentations at nearly every hospital in Maine. He was the founder and first board chairman of the Yankee Alliance which linked a dozen large hospitals throughout New England and upstate New York, and was an early board member of American Healthcare Systems. He published a number of hospital journal articles and taught seminars at numerous workshops across the U.S. In 1989 he was recognized by the healthcare graduate program at Northwestern University as its Outstanding Alumnus. Prior to his retirement, Eastern Maine Healthcare awarded him the Distinguished Service Award. He also received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Husson College (now Husson University) and many other honors and recognitions. Despite these honors, Bob always tried to maintain a low profile. When asked why, he would say he wanted the hospital to be the star of the show, not the performance of any one individual.

In retirement, Bob had the time to pursue many other interests with great joy and energy. His wife Alicia and daughter Amy were running a small antiques business and he joined in with real passion, becoming an expert on hand-painted porcelain and art pottery. They particularly enjoyed attending shows around the northeastern U.S., getting to know and regularly interact with customers and other sellers. Another interest that inspired Bob and Alicia to travel extensively was birding, an activity they both enjoyed very much. Bob became a serious birder, and built his “life list” of observed species to impressive levels. Their travels in pursuit of rare bird sightings took Bob across the U.S. and to far reaches of the globe, including Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, various islands of the Caribbean, and the Aleutians. This also gave him the opportunity to pursue another interest, photography. Perhaps the most special trips for him, though, were the week-long trips he was able to take with each of his three grandsons to visit special places in the United States, a bonding opportunity that will be forever remembered by the boys.

Bob was predeceased by his parents Charles and Doris Brandow of Geneva, New York, and his brother Willis (Bill) also of Geneva. Bob’s wife Alicia predeceased him in 2004. He is survived by six children - Eric, Carl, Jeffrey (and wife Anne), Susan, Dean and Amy (and husband Phil). He is also survived by three grandchildren, one great-grandchild, a sister-in-law and numerous nieces, nephews, and cousins. And importantly, he is survived by his dear friend Marion Lundgren, who had become his constant companion and partner over the last three years.

Because of his reserved nature, few people really understood how caring and thoughtful he was, but his family knew well his kindness and generosity. Words cannot express how much he will be missed; However, we welcome you to sign his memory book and perhaps leave a message or brief story. If so inclined, donations in his memory can be made to Northern Light Health Foundation at https://northernlighthealth.org/Our-System/Foundation/Donation-Opportunities/EMMC-Foundation-Donation.