DR. H. BRENT DE LAND JR.
June 20, 1949 – Jan. 5, 2015 
Brent De Land lived his life with such care and compassion that his work will likely live on for generations.
He was best known for his extensive humanitarian work in Haiti, and the rest of his life reflected that same strength of conviction.
Dr. H. Brent De Land Jr. was born on June 20, 1949, in Chicago, the son of Harry and Margaret De Land. He studied radiology at Northwestern University School of Medicine, graduating in 1970. Brent’s passion was helping others, and he became a lay Franciscan missionary to Brazil.
Brent was in the process of leaving the order when he met his future wife, Carol. Both were attending Sangamon State University when they went to see a movie with mutual friends. It was her reaction to that movie, Butterflies Are Free, which attracted Brent to her.
“What drew us together was his direct sense of purpose in helping other people,” said Carol, a social worker herself.
They married in 1974 and had two sons. Brent earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from SSU, as well as a doctorate in human service management from Union Institution University in Ohio. He served as CEO of the Illinois Community Action Association, president of Springfield College in Illinois (now Benedictine University at Springfield), and assistant bureau chief of research and analysis for the Illinois Department of Human Services.
However, his real calling was his work in Haiti. Brent visited the poverty-stricken country for the first time in 1996 and developed a deep love for the people of Haiti.
“There were so many needs,” Carol said.
“Children were literally left on the doorstep of the convent there. They just had his heart.”
He took groups of students from Springfield College on medical mission trips to Haiti several times, and in 2002, he cofounded a medical clinic in the Cité Soleil slum of Haiti’s capital, Port-au- Prince. The clinic started as a one-room building with only a single bulb for light. When it was partly destroyed in the January 2010 earthquake that devastated Haiti, the clinic was rebuilt and expanded into a 3,000-square-foot building with a laboratory, an intravenous infusion room, two examination rooms and a staff of 10. The rubble from the old clinic was used to fill potholes.
Brent made trips to Haiti twice each year to resupply the clinic, which treated 100,000 people by the time Brent and the board of his charity, the Haitian Development Fund, turned control over to the clinic’s staff in 2011.
Carol says Brent followed the teachings of Mother Teresa and couldn’t help but turn his beliefs and values into action.
“He lived his faith,” Carol said. “He was a very consciously faithful man.”
That’s what Vicki Compton remembers about Brent, as well. She is director of the Office for Missions at the Catholic Diocese of Springfield in Illinois. Vicki met Brent through their mutual missions work in Haiti, and she describes him as a tireless advocate with “a great big, huge heart” and an intolerance for injustice. Brent held nothing back, being generous with his finances, his time and his relationships.
Vicki says that whenever she and Brent met, he would get choked up about whatever issue was on his heart.
“He was never a bystander,” she said.
“He was always a part of whatever was going on because he cared so much.”
Brent truly understood the concept of solidarity – taking on someone else’s struggle.
“That’s not you and your problems, but together, we’re connected,” Vicki said. “He couldn’t pretend we’re not all connected. There are not a lot of people who really want to dive in to global hunger and poverty and how we’re connected to that through cause and effect, through our faith. He was a friend and colleague who got that, who knew how hard it was, how messy it was, how frustrating it was.”
Vicki recalls that as Brent’s body succumbed to his medical issues, he decided against treatment.
“Most people are not ready to die, either because they don’t know what comes next or they’re not ready for it,” she said. “He knew, and he was ready for it. That was his final offering.”
Carol De Land says Brent carefully put his affairs in order and made a resolution that he would fight to stay alive for their 40 th anniversary. He made it.
“He felt completed, like he had done what he needed to do,” she said. “He lived out his mission.”
Carol says what she will miss most about Brent is his sense of humor and his loving presence.
“I miss him always being there for me,” she said. “I could depend on him, rely on him. I knew he loved me. I truly miss him.”
Contact Patrick Yeagle at pyeagle@illinoistimes.com.
