Epsom, NH – Brian P. O’Sullivan, M.D., Director of the New Hampshire Cystic Fibrosis Center at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and Professor of Pediatrics at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, passed away unexpectedly on March 8, after a wonderful day of skiing with his grandchildren. While his family mourns his loss, we also know that spending time with his grandchildren and being in the White Mountains of New Hampshire were two of the greatest joys of his life, and we take comfort in knowing that his last day was also one of his best.
Born in Queens, New York, in 1953, Brian was a fourth-birthday present for his sister, Eileen, with whom he spent childhood in Granby, Massachusetts, where the two got up to countless hijinks. (It remains a minor miracle in family lore that Brian grew up with both eyebrows intact after Eileen and friends decided to discover how their father’s razor worked.) From Granby, Brian went to Dartmouth College (Class of 1975), where he joined a fraternity with the somewhat ridiculous name The Harold Parmington Foundation-a group that fostered lifelong friendships for Brian and his family. While the future Dr. O’Sullivan majored in biology at Dartmouth, he found a passionate avocation in film studies, and between graduation and beginning at Dartmouth Medical School two years later he led the Dartmouth Film Society. Brian was relentlessly curious, interested in topics far beyond his fields of specialty, from French film to quantum mechanics to the music of Joni Mitchell, and one of his enduring legacies will be how he passed those curiosities on to his children, grandchildren, and friends. Red Sox and Patriots fanatic, multiple-time marathon finisher, mountain-climber (Kilimanjaro and Rainier were his peak accomplishments, but he truly loved Katahdin and, especially, Franconia Ridge), lover of apple pie, hater of cheese (except on pizza!) who nonetheless was “Head Chief Cheese-Cutter” in his family as a young boy, bow-tie aficionado…Brian’s loves and enthusiasms were many and varied, as were those who loved him.
Dr. O’Sullivan’s (or Dr. Grandpa’s, to some of the youngest generation) professional accomplishments are too myriad to list. Choosing to sub-specialize in pediatric pulmonology and working to treat and to understand cystic fibrosis is a perfect example of the selflessness of his approach to life. He worked as a clinical physician his whole career, because he loved to take care of sick kids, even while also publishing original research in journals like The New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, and Chest. Later in his career, as an acknowledged expert in his field, he leveraged his status for the benefit of his patients, protesting loudly against the high cost of specialty cystic fibrosis drugs to patients who have to take them for their whole lives. Brian was always concerned with taking care of the whole person, never just their disease.
Coming as he did from a long line of teachers and educators, Brian was as proud of his teaching record as he was of his research and clinical success. In fact, just two weeks before he died, he forwarded to his children some feedback he had gotten on a recent lecture, claiming that doing so was “ego on [his] part,” when in reality it was further evidence-as if we needed it-of what he meant to his professional community. The most remarkable comment was also the most unsurprising: one attendee called the lecture “the best and most hopeful” they had heard in years.
Excellence, and hope. Brian would want to be remembered for no less. He leaves behind a family devastated by our loss but so genuinely grateful for the life we had with him. He is survived by his wife, Susan Pagano; his children, Conor and Whitney (O’Connor) and their respective spouses, Lindsay (née Dold) and Ryan; his four grandchildren, Noel and Margaret O’Sullivan and Caydran and Bray O’Connor; his stepchildren, Vincent, Matthew, and Francesca Pagano; his sister, Eileen (Covell) and her husband Doug and their children, Grant and Andrew, their respective spouses, Tricia and Katie, and their children; his ex-wife, Nancy Friedrichs O’Sullivan; his beloved Great Pyrenees, Hudson; and a community of colleagues, patients, and friends who have been vocal and universal in singing his praises. In lieu of flowers, we ask that you continue his legacy by making a contribution to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. To share memories and celebrations of Brian, and for information about a memorial service, please visit celebratingbrian.com.
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