Donald Alan Brennan

Don Brennan moved between the worlds of work, friendship, and family with skill, compassion, playful humor and love. His friends, colleagues and family all knew one constant about him: He was true and genuine to everyone he met. A health care reformer and champion for the poor and vulnerable, Don sought to use his faith and many gifts to reshape healthcare systems to serve everyone. He was a leader who understood that his organizations’ success came not from the top, but from the tireless efforts of those doing the hard work who often go unnoticed and rarely recognized. Don embraced and preached the value of life balance; he was a leader and professional, driven to pursue excellence and challenge the status quo. At the same time, he was dedicated to his family, often stepping away from the demands of his work to watch his sons’ afternoon practices and grandchildren’s t-ball games. He eagerly shared his love for the outdoors, from weekend golfing, skiing, camping and fishing in the Rockies and Cascades, to hopelessly digging after geoduck clams on his beloved Puget Sound beach in Purdy, WA. He also had a deep love of his dogs and cats. He played weekly basketball for many years, traveled with his wife Kathleen (Kathy) to scuba dive in Australia and the Caribbean, was an avid runner and sports fan. He loved his Irish heritage and cherished a visit to his ancestral home in Kilkenny, Ireland. HUMBLE BEGINNINGS Donny, as his siblings called him, and his twin sister, Barbara, were born the youngest of five children to Paul and Irene Brennan in Denver, CO, during the depths of the Great Depression in 1937. As a youngster growing up in central Denver, Don found himself more often tangled in mischief than pursuing academics; he was politely asked to leave his Catholic high school, transferring and finally graduating from Denver South High School in 1955. He joined the U.S. Navy shortly following high school and served for two peacetime years aboard the U.S.S. Calvert, stationed in Yokosuka, Japan and Hong Kong. Don often said his most significant action was as a member of the 7th fleet basketball team. He returned to Denver in 1957 and worked as a laborer until an older co-worker “persuaded” him to use his GI Bill scholarship and become the first in his family to attend college, enrolling at the University of Colorado. After nearly flunking out during his first year of college, Don graduated with an accounting degree and proceeded directly to graduate studies, where he received his Master of Public Administration degree in 1967. FAMILY MAN AND LEADER While an undergraduate student at CU and working as a bus boy in the student union, Don met his future wife Kathleen (Kathy) Smith, a CU nursing student from Boise, ID. the two were married in 1961, settling in Aurora, CO, to begin raising their four sons, Paul, Steve, Tom and Doug. While a graduate student at CU, Don began working for the University of Colorado Medical Center and after finishing his degree was promoted to Vice President of Health Affairs. In 1974, Don accepted a position as Vice President and Business Manager for Group Health Cooperative in Seattle, WA. Kathy and Don relocated their young family to Bellevue, WA, where they lived until moving to Bothell in 2017. In 1976, Don was appointed Chief Executive Officer for Group Health, shepherding the creation of one of the nation’s first Medicare Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) and leading Group Health through a significant growth period before leaving in 1980 to join the Sisters of Providence Health System (now Providence). As the first lay (non-religious) President and CEO of the Providence system, Don brought his unique talent for innovation and system design, along with his passion to improve access to health care, to guide Providence through its first stage of evolution to become an integrated health care delivery system. During his tenure, Providence established the Good Health Plan (now Providence Health Plans), Providence ElderPlace, one of the nation’s first Program for All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) programs, and other holistic systems of care. Don was one of the first Westerners to bring medical supplies to the newly re-opened Catholic hospitals in St. Petersburg, Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union. Don’s deep passion for health care reform led him to position Providence as a leading voice in Washington State’s health reform legislative debate in the early 1990s and to accept then Gov. Mike Lowry’s invitation to co-chair the newly-formed Health Services Commission to implement the state’s new health reform law. Don retired from Providence in 1993 and served as a commissioner for two years, stepping down in 1995. A few months after leaving the commission, Don was asked by the Daughters of Charity National Health System in St. Louis, MO, to design a new health system merging the Daughters system with the Sisters of St. Joseph Health System in Ann Arbor, MI. Serving as CEO of the Daughters of Charity system, Don worked with the two organizations’ leaders to create Ascension Health, then the nation’s largest not-for-profit health system. Once the new system was in place, the Ascension board asked Don to serve as its first Chief Executive Officer in 1999. Don retired from Ascension Health in 2001. Unwavering in his belief that healthcare is a human right, Don sought to extend his contributions beyond the organizations he led. Don was actively involved with the Catholic Health Association (CHA), American Hospital Association (AHA) and a variety of boards and organizations. As a CHA board member, he led an expert group of Catholic health care leaders to prepare a national health care reform proposal in 2003 - elements of which became part of the Affordable Care Act in 2010. Following his retirement, he served as a member of the Swedish Health Services board for several years, as well as the Washington Health Care Forum. While Don’s influence is spread by the innumerable lives he touched in his nearly 84 years, the spirit of this extraordinary man dwells deeply in the hearts of those he cherished most. He is survived by Kathy, his wife of nearly 60 years; his son Paul and daughter-in-law, Yolanda, son Steve and daughter-in-law Maria, son Tom and daughter-in-law Sally, and son Doug and daughter-in-law Dana; and 11 grandchildren, Nolan, Jordan, Blake, Sean, Matt, Sarah, Will, Sofia, Colin, Emilie and Molly. Don was also great-grandfather to Hayden, Blakely and Cameron. Other survivors at the time of his death are his several nieces and nephews. He will be missed by many people. There will be an invitation-only funeral Mass at St. James Cathedral in Seattle, WA on Monday, March 22, 2021 at 1:30 p.m.