John Fenn Brill ’58

Jeff died May 9, 1993, in Providence, R.I., where he had lived since graduation from the Univ. of Virginia Law School in 1961.

We remember Jeff, who entered with us in the fall of 1954 from Saint Paul's School, for his powerful mind and sharp wit. His lifelong interests in medieval history, American antiques, and investing were already well established, and he continued them for the rest of his life. He was notably successful with investments and Americana.

After practicing for a decade and a half with the top firm in Providence, during which he became a most skillful professional at the art of protecting family capital through legal work, Jeff left the law and took up personal computers, when the field itself was only beginning to exist. It was in this business that he was engaged at his death.

Jeff also loved the countryside, the farm in Del. aware where he grew up amid a veritable herd of mastiffs, the family compound in Maine, and the many other places, especially the takes and seas, where he practiced another great avocation, fishing.

Jeff relished his friends, prizing those with minds as quick as his own. Sadly, his discerning ways did not find him happiness of the sort that gives long life. He died of complications of cancer and alcohol, after a long illness that fortunately did not incapacitate him till the very end.

But happily, he has left in our memory, how a glint, then a twinkle would rise in his eyes. Then, a smile would come through the frown and, finally, Jeff would chuckle at something he had seen first and now we all could share.

To his son Andrew and daughter Morgan, and to his brother Patrick and sister Nancy, the class extends its sympathies.

The Class of 1958