Focused on the Future

Dr. Luther W. Brady, Jr., was a man of extraordinary talents.

As a physician he towered as one of the world's great pioneers in preserving vision for patients with ocular cancer.

As an art lover he was a significant collector with a special eye for excellence in abstract expressionism.

And as a visionary philanthropist he was devoted to improving the world through charitable giving.

"My firm belief," he stressed, "is that any individual with opportunity and means ought to perpetuate their core interests through charitable giving."

Not surprisingly, one of Dr. Brady's core interests was supporting the future of ocular oncology. To that end he established a major philanthropic legacy at Wills Eye Hospital that included support for research to study tumors of the eye, as well as funds to establish an endowed chair in oncologic ophthalmology.

He also extended his philanthropy into the future by making a planned gift through his estate to benefit Wills Eye.

"To my mind," said Dr. Brady, "there is no question that Wills Eye Hospital is the premier institution in the world for eye diseases. They have an incredible faculty, they have excellent facilities and resources, and they are adding to those facilities with additional research labs and personnel. I am very pleased that my support will continue, beyond me, to help fund these research facilities and activities."

A breakthrough procedure in ocular oncology

Dr. Brady's association with Wills Eye reached back to the mid-seventies. That was when he first met Dr. Jerry Shields, who was then a fellow at Wills Eye Hospital and who today is Director Emeritus of the Wills Eye Ocular Oncology Service.

Brady and Shields shared a quest to find the best way to treat melanomas of the choroid, the blood-vessel layer beneath the retina, without having to remove the eye.

Their goal was to achieve survival results as good as enucleation (removal of the eye), while keeping a patient's vision and eye intact.

They tested numerous radionuclides in their search for the best approach to radiation therapy for eye tumors. Eventually they settled on iodine-125 as the material they could most rigorously control. Then they developed an ingenious method of delivering the radiation precisely to the desired area of the eye. They designed and manufactured tiny plaques with gold shields that they could load with the radionuclide and suture precisely to the wall of the eye. The gold shield protected the healthy part of the eye while the radiation was delivered directly to the melanoma.

With this breakthrough Dr. Brady found himself at the forefront of an international movement for organ preservation in oncology management.

"Our work had a real influence in developing cancer treatments that not only had better outcomes, but did so with more limited side effects," he noted. "Our emphasis on preserving the eye was reflected over time in new methods of treating cancers of the breast, prostate, bladder, larynx, and others."

A lauded career at the forefront of care

Dr. Brady's landmark medical career has been recognized with a multitude of awards. He was presented seven honorary degrees, including one of only ten that the University of Heidelberg has awarded over the past 100 years.

Dr. Brady's promise as a medical pioneer was evident from his youth. Raised in North Carolina, he moved to Washington, D.C., to attend George Washington University. After only one semester in the undergraduate zoology program, he was also accepted into the medical school.

He soon headed north to Philadelphia for an internship at Jefferson Medical College Hospital, where he was the first intern ever accepted without having first been a student at the Medical College.

"Coming to Philadelphia," he said, "was the best move I ever made."

Dr. Brady's career was full of good moves. He received post-graduate training in radiology and radiation oncology at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Bethesda. He served on the faculty at Columbia University in New York. And he ran the radiation oncology program at Harvard's Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston.

But he kept returning to Philadelphia. He received additional experience at Thomas Jefferson Medical College and the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, and he held a number of appointments with Hahnemann University Hospital, including as Chairman of the Department of Radiation Oncology and Nuclear Medicine, and as the Hyla Cohn/American Cancer Professor of Clinical Oncology.

But his work with Wills Eye, he said, held a special place in his heart. "It has been a longstanding, very rewarding, and very fruitful association over many years."

A multifaceted and generous life

Dr. Brady was known for his passionate work ethic, but medicine was far from his sole passion.

Since childhood he had been an accomplished violinist, performing as first chair in the George Washington University orchestra. He also worked as a radio host, sharing on-air duties with Margaret Truman, whose father, President Harry Truman, he met on a number of occasions.

In addition, he served as an active volunteer leader on numerous nonprofit boards of trustees, including locally with the Fleisher Art Memorial, Settlement Music School, Curtis Institute of Music, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, as well as further afield on the boards of George Washington University, The Phillips Collection, and others.

Dr. Brady's affinity for cultural organizations was no accident. In addition to his love of music, he had a passion for art and furniture. He had a keen eye for abstract expressionist art, as well for 18th- and 19th-century Philadelphia furniture. He combined both in his beautiful Philadelphia home, and as he noted, "They go pretty well together!"

Dr. Brady was fully aware that his art and furniture would likely outlive him, so he made detailed plans for where they would go once he was gone. It's the same, he said, with his charitable estate planning, "It can be difficult to plan for one's death," he conceded, "but I've faced that, made my charitable arrangements with Wills Eye, and everything is settled. Life has been very good to me, and I feel strongly that the least I can do is repay that goodness."

How did he account for such a positive focus on the future?

He answered with a laugh.

"I am a great believer in what Satchel Paige said: 'Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you!’"

Dr. Brady passed away in July 2018, but his legacy continues to live on at Wills Eye through both his discoveries in ocular oncology treatment and the Brady-Shields Endowed Chair in Ocular Oncology at Wills Eye.

For more information about making a planned gift in support of Wills Eye Hospital, please contact Suzanne Beers at (215) 440-3153 or sbeers@willseye.org.