Dr. Charles Brown, who helped develop a stainless- steel hip prosthesis still in use today, died June 15 at age 87.
Brown, who did orthopedic surgery on thousands of people, also saved the lives of some Denver Broncos and University of Colorado football players during his long career.
Brown and the late Dr. Foster Matchett, who were partners in Western Orthopedics, a medical firm in east Denver, developed a ball-and- socket hip prosthesis made of stainless steel in 1959, and it was the first one to be used commercially, said Brown’s son Richard Brown of Centennial.
“It allowed for more movement,” Richard Brown said, “and was used throughout the world.”
Ironically, when Charles Brown broke his hip several months ago, there was no need for him to get the hip replacement he had helped invent.
He and Matchett gave the invention to medical science.
Brown was the Broncos orthopedic surgeon in the 1960s, but he was the CU football team’s orthopedic surgeon for 30 years, traveling to all the games for 25 years.
He was called on for everything, once even saving the life of Broncos player Goose Goslin when he was hit so hard he swallowed his tongue. Brown came to the rescue.
He did surgeries at Presbyterian-St. Luke’s, Children’s and St. Joseph hospitals in Denver.
In addition to his own practice in Denver, Brown traveled to Climax several times in 1955 to visit a molybdenum mine and work with patients injured in the mines.
Charles William Brown was born Aug. 27, 1917, in Waynesburg, Pa., and earned his undergraduate degree from the University of West Virginia and medical degree from the University of Maryland.
He trained at the University of Minnesota and the University of Pennsylvania and Sayre Hospital in Sayre, Pa.
He was a captain in the Army in World War II and served in the Pacific Theater.
He moved to Colorado in 1951 because he had the opportunity to work with Foster Matchett.
He helped establish the American Society of Sports Medicine, and the University of Colorado created a sports medicine library named for him.
In addition to his son Richard, he is survived by his wife, Margaret Sahlen Brown of Cherry Hills Village; another son, David H. Brown of Aurora; a daughter, Barbara Ann Noel of Centennial; four grandchildren; and a sister, Martha Dean Blain of Aurora. He was preceded in death by his son Charles Brown Jr.
Staff writer Virginia Culver can be reached at 303-820-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com.
