‘Rock of security and goodness’: Dr. Val Brown Sr. remembered for impact on Wichita
The family of a prominent Wichita doctor is remembering him for never turning down a patient during an era when doctors made house visits.
Dr. Val Brown Sr., 98, of Wichita, died April 20.
Brown’s family spanned three generations of medical doctors. His father, G.G. Brown, moved to Wichita from his home town of Atchison and was one of the first Black physicians in Wichita, according to Eagle archives.
Although G.G. Brown died of a heart attack in 1925, when he was 51 and Val Brown Sr. was a year old, the boy grew up knowing he would follow his father’s footsteps, building a family tradition.
“It was indelibly pressed on my mind that this — studying to become a doctor — was what I was going to do,” Brown Sr. said in a 1994 Wichita Eagle article about his retirement.
“There was a lot of pressure on him, I think, to go into medicine because his father was a medical doctor. Dr. Brown never had the chance to know his dad, but everyone in the community knew his father, so he grew up around people that called him ‘Little Doc Brown,’ so I think that finally at some point he didn’t resist that,” his son, Val Brown Jr., told The Eagle recently.
Brown Sr. attended Wichita High School North and Wichita University, now known as Wichita State University.
He then followed his father to Howard University’s school of medicine in Washington, D.C.
Val Brown Sr. had a journal that was filled with G.G. Brown’s experiences during his time at Howard, granddaughter Sheinelle Jones told the Eagle.
“He would look at his father’s journal from time to time and see what his father was going through — it was his way of staying close with his father,” Jones said.
Brown Sr. opened his practice in a one-story cream-colored building at 18th Street and Hydraulic — serving the Black community in the heart of northeast Wichita during an era when doctors still made house calls, ran their own practices and let their patients pay what they could afford, his son said.
In almost 45 years of serving 8,000 patients, Brown Sr. was known as the doctor who never turned down anyone.
“He started out doing house calls. That’s when the doctor gets in his car, brings a little black bag and comes to your house because you are either too sick or you don’t have any money. I accompanied him on a lot of those trips, and of course I didn’t go in the house and see what was going on. But I knew that there was somebody in there that was sick — and I knew Dad was taking care of business,” Brown Jr. said.
Community trailblazer
Hospitals were still segregated when Brown Sr. began practicing in 1948. As time passed, he became the first black doctor at Wesley Medical center to receive admitting privileges, Brown Jr. says.
Brown Sr. was a member of the City County Board of Health and the Medical Society of Sedgwick County. Brown Jr. says he believes that is what helped his father receive admitting privileges.
Val Brown Jr. marked the third generation of doctors in the Brown family. He graduated from the KU School of Medicine-Wichita in 1979. He joined his father’s practice in 1983 and worked alongside his father for eight years before moving to a different practice.
G.G. Brown, Val Brown Sr. and Val Brown Jr. were all members of the Medical Society of Sedgwick County (MSSC). G.G. Brown served as the assistant county physician during his tenure, according to an MSSC Black History Month article.
Brown Sr. was well known and respected beyond the medical community, his family said.
“For us growing up he was just dad, you know, he was a super dad. We didn’t know at the time the influence he had on everybody in the community,virtually everybody. He was so highly respected among his peers, not just in one neighborhood — but all the neighborhoods,” Brown Jr. says.
“He was always so proud of all of us,” Jones said of her grandfather. “If anything, we had such a role model. He may have been a physician, and you know, I’m a journalist, but there was a standard of excellence that he set that we all strive to follow.”
Brown Sr. retired in 1994, but his passion for learning and immersing himself in the community didn’t. He was active in his church, New Hope Missionary Baptist Church in Wichita, and as a member of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, where many would come to him seeking advice.
“He was a rock of security and goodness in this city,” Jones said of her grandfather. “Even after he retired, people would still call with their medical questions. I will admit, I certainly did too.”
The family of Brown Sr. say the support they have received from the community is overwhelming.
“We’re at a point where he was 98 years old, and the calls we’re getting, flowers, cards and well wishes ... it’s been a bit overwhelming. People are still trying to find ways to express their thanks and reaching out to my grandmother,” Jones said.
Brown Sr. leaves behind his wife, Josephine Brown; sons Val Jr. and Gratz; daughters Sheila and Martienne; four grandchildren and four great grandchildren.
The elder Brown’s funeral service will held at 11 a.m. Thursday, May 5 at St. Mark United Methodist Church, 1525 N. Lorraine in Wichita.
This story was originally published April 26, 2022 at 4:23 AM.