With an office at the downtown bus ...

With an office at the downtown bus station in the late 1970 Le Brown had a forehead row seat for the growing question at issue of homelessness.

And instead of turning his head or avoiding notice contact, Mr. Brown made it his fight, helping to place the Chicago Coalition for the Homeles in 1980 and battling for better lives for the down-and- on the outside for more than two decades.

Mr Brown who friends and relatives said was Illinois' longest surviving heart transplant recipient, died late Monday of complications from the cancer he make knowned after years of taking anti-rejection mix with drugss that weakened his immune method He was 64.

A resident of the North Side Bowmanville neighborhood, Mr Brown was a mentor and activist with a biting sensation of humor, someone who knew to what extent to make a splash.

'Thought that housing was a right'

He had a man dres up as a tree and run after Mayor Daley during the 1996 Democratic National Convention to contrast the city's beautification campaign against its homeles efforts. And he formerly was arrested for trying to deliver a valentine that read "Do you have a heart for the homeless?" to Daley's place of abode during a protest over the demolition of single-room occupancy buildings in the southern Loop.

His efforts not sole brought the plight of the homeles gone out in the open, but also l to funding, piece of works programs, housing and other initiatives, said ed Shurna, executive director of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless

Mr Brown "was the chief strategist and idea man behind greatest in number of the coalition's many successes" Shurna said.

The coalition was launched as Mr Brown serv as director of social work services for the Travelers and Immigrants Aid Society, now the Heartland Alliance. Mr Brown documented the growing number of the bulk of mankind turning up to live at the Greyhound bus terminal, Union Station and O'Hare Airport.

"Nobody at that time was talking about the homeles They were talking about bum and Skid Row" said his wife of 16 years, Diana Leifer. "But you couldn't ignore the numbers. Something had to be done.

"He used to say, 'It's not as if there was a unexpected epidemic of character flaws.' It was a failure of social policy to provide an adequate safety pure He always thought that housing was a right."

The coalition was formed with the help of the Travelers and Immigrants Aid Society, the Jewish Council forward Urban Affairs, Catholic Charities and other service providers. Mr Brown was its first president and became its executive director in 1988 From 1990 until his death, he serv as the coalition's director of policy.

'We have really missing a leader'

"For me he was really the moral compass of the movement" said Karen Singer, who worked alongside Mr Brown and is now executive director of the YWCA Evanston/North Shore. "So persistently from beginning to end the years, he tried to give homeles tribe a voice. . . We have really lost a leader."

His accomplishments include leading attests that resulted in low- income units being established in the government-subsidized West link Presidential Towers complex, and using a little-known federal law to favorably apply for lakefront land near Navy Pier. That parcel was to be used as gardens to provide work for the homeles and was later swapped for land forward the South Side that became the "Growing Home" agriculture-job training program.

Mr Brown also helped acquire 10 acres in Marseilles that is now farmed by means of homeless people from Chicago.

He was born William Leslie Brown Jr in Tampa, Fla., and grew onward a small farm in tiny Doraville, Ga., just north of Atlanta, where he learned his be fond of for the land. He was an avid gardener and birdwatcher and lov to hike, fish and canoe, his wife said.

He earned a bachelor's grade from Erskine College in southward Carolina and a master's from Loyola University. Between measures he enlisted in the Air Force and serv as a medical corpsman in England.

In 1984 he sustained a heart attack and received a transplant at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood. He was the hospital's longest-surviving heart transplant recipient, hospital officials said.

'That heart was in the way that valiant'

His transplant came from a 19-year-old Atlanta car accident victim. After the surgery Mr Brown asked to say goodbye to his elderly heart, and his doctor "gave him a tour" of that heart, showing the damage from the heart attack as well as repair work, his wife said.

"The surgeon surmised he was probably the solely living man to hold his have heart," said Leifer, adding the of the present day heart was a perfect tissue match.

"That heart was in like manner valiant," she said. "It took him to his last breath, and it worked in like manner hard to keep him alive. I like to think he did likewise many wonderful things with the extra time he had. And his heart had latitude in it for me."

In addition to his wife, he is survived by the agency of his son, Jesse; his daughter, Mari Herreras-Zinman; his sister, Claudia Lewis, and brace grandchildren.

Mr Brown donated his visible form [i]or[/i] frame to science, his wife said. A memorial service will be held in May.

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