SEARHC President/CEO Ken Brewer passes away
Ken Brewer, President/CEO for the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC), passed away on Saturday, June 2, 2007.
"On behalf of the SEARHC Board of Directors, I want to express the profound sadness and the deep sense of loss that Ken's untimely passing will bring to us all," said Jan Hill, Chairperson of the SEARHC Board of Directors. "The Board joins with the rest of the SEARHC family in keeping Pam and the Brewer family in our prayers and thoughts during this time of tremendous grief."
Ken was born Jan. 1, 1951, in Browning, Mont., and was a member of the Blackfeet Tribe (his mother is a member of the tribe and his father was a career soldier in the U.S. Air Force who was stationed in Great Falls, Mont., for much of his career). He had two brothers (Dale and Marvin) and a sister (Marcia). After spending the first 12 years of his life in Great Falls, Ken's family moved to Libya, New Jersey, Guam and then Tacoma, Wash., where he finished high school. After high school, Ken joined the Air Force and was stationed at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls for three years. He attended the University of Montana.
After working as a Certified Public Accountant for the Washington State Health Care Authority, Ken was hired by SEARHC as Chief Financial Officer, arriving in Juneau in May 1992. He was promoted to Senior Vice President in 1994 and replaced longtime SEARHC President Ethel Lund when she retired in April 2000. During his time with SEARHC, Ken oversaw a period of tremendous growth for the Consortium, which now is the largest private employer in Southeast Alaska with about 1,000 employees.
SEARHC is an Alaska Native-operated, non-profit tribal health consortium of 18 Native communities that provides medical, dental, behavioral health, substance abuse treatment and wellness services to Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian and other Native people who reside in Southeast Alaska. SEARHC was created under provisions of the Indian Self-Determination Act of 1975 and is one of the oldest and largest Native-run health organizations in the country.
"I think there is a whole loop, a circle, in life," Ken said in an interview for the book Gumboot Determination: The Story of the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (Page 146). "Getting hired by SEARHC brought it all together: growing up around the reservation, living among various cultures around the world, auditing governmental programs and then working in health care for the State of Washington — it pulled it all together and gave me a broad background on the issues that confront tribal management of health care."
Ray Wilson, the leader of the Kiksádi clan and a member of the Raven moiety, adopted Ken into the clan and gave Ken the Tlingit name Shaayigan, which was Ray's brother's name.
Ken leaves a wife, Pam, a son, Eric, and two step-sons, Scott and Brad Tobel. A memorial service is scheduled for 3 p.m. Sunday at Centennial Hall in Juneau. In lieu of flowers, Pam Brewer requests that donations be made to The Healing Hand Foundation (formerly The SEARHC Foundation), a non-profit organization that helps SEARHC beneficiaries with unmet needs in durable medical goods, pharmaceuticals and patient travel costs. She asks that the donations be sent to her at P.O. Box 210008, Auke Bay, Alaska, 99821, so she can respond with thank-you cards.
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