Joel Douglas Brown

Joel Douglas Brown M.D. died peacefully at the Saint Francis Hospice IPU in Honolulu, Hawaii on September 30, 2025. Joel was a good and faithful friend, a trusted colleague, and a caring father and uncle. He was a gifted teacher, a great storyteller and possessed a wonderful sense of humor.

Joel was born in Boston, Massachusetts on July 20, 1936. He grew up in Prince Georges County, Maryland and graduated from Bladensburg High School in 1954. After graduation he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and became an Electronics Technician assigned to the Naval Medical Research Institute, Bethesda, Maryland. He attended American University and The Catholic University of America and in 1963 graduated with honors from George Washington University School of Medicine. He completed his residency training in Internal Medicine at the University of Washington in 1967.

From 1967-68 he served with the Army Special Forces in Viet Nam. After his Army service, he completed two years of training in Infectious Disease at USC and UCLA. He was an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Oklahoma before returning to Viet Nam from 1970-1974 as a visiting member of the Medicine faculty at the University of Saigon. He returned to USC from 1974-1976 as an Assistant Professor of Medicine. In 1976 he returned to active military duty in the Army, rising to the rank of colonel at the Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. As Chief of Infectious Diseases, he organized the Annual Asia Pacific Military Medical Conference. This conference brought together 22 foreign missions and their surgeon generals. In 1999 he retired from the Army and joined the faculty of John Burns School of Medicine as a Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Department of Infectious Diseases. He received awards and authored several academic papers but is best known as an outstanding clinical educator of medical students and residents.

Joel is survived by his son Michael Francis Brown, his daughter Tiare Joelle Brown, and her sons Teraimana and Haurama .

A Celebration of Life will be held on November 5, 2025 at 11:00 AM at the Borthwick Mortuary in Honolulu, He will be laid to rest with military honors at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at 2:00 PM, November 6, 2025.