In memory of Geoff Brown.

We are sorry to report that Geoff Brown died after a short illness on July 27th 2011 at the age of 84.

This is a very sad loss to all his friends. Geoff lost his hearing completely, as a young man, from meningitis. Over forty years later he received one of the earliest single electrode implants at the RNTE hospital in London. It was over fifty years after being deafened that he had his multi-electrode cochlear implant at Manchester. Although he did not hear speech without lip-reading and was unable to enjoy the music he remembered so well, he was always glad he had the implant which helped with lip- reading and environmental sounds. Geoff was very supportive of Cicada. He joined the committee and being always ahead with new technology, he set up our web site and provided his digital projector for use at all our meetings. He was quiet but his useful and sensible comments made him well respected.

We also enjoyed his dry sense of humour, both written and spoken.
He was a founder of STAGETEXT, a long time member and Trustee of NADP, and until recently Chairman of the Late Deafened People Commission for the International Federation of the Hard of Hearing (IFHOH). For some years he was Chairman of Deafness Support Network.

He also attended the ALDA (Association for Late Deafened Adults) Conference in the USA every year. He was a scientist and had a career in the chemical industry before retiring early and setting up a bookbinding business.

Geoff was a Methodist lay preacher and a true Christian. He had more energy than many much younger and enjoyed walking – always leaving many of us trailing behind!

He was also a confident driver and on one occasion took two very grateful Shakespeare fans from Chester to Stratford for the day to see Sam West in Hamlet. That was one of the many captioned plays we enjoyed with him. In spite of all his achievements he was a very modest person and always very encouraging and supportive to the efforts of others to help deafened people. No wonder he has so many friends all over the world. We all extend our deepest sympathy to his family.