William "Bill" Brown

William Tracy Brown, 86, died peacefully Monday, September 26, at Iowa Methodist Hospital in Des Moines, of complications of heart disease. Bill was born in Bayard on July 28, 1936, to William E. Brown, a newspaper editor and publisher, and Eileen Tracy Brown, and spent much of his childhood in Glenwood, before moving to Des Moines in 1953, where Bill helped the Roosevelt High School football team win the state championship that year and graduated in 1954. He went on to the State University of Iowa in Iowa City, where he graduated in 1959, was a member of Phi Kappa Psi, and graduated from the dental school in 1963.
In Iowa City, Bill met Sibylla Lippisch, the daughter of a German scientist who had resettled to Cedar Rapids after World War Two. They married September 2, 1962, and shortly before Bill's death celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. They settled in Des Moines, where Bill built a successful dental practice grounded in an understanding of the critical role dental health played in the life, happiness and well-being of his patients. He spoke and wrote widely in his profession, pioneered the development of group dental plans as a consultant to major insurance companies, served as President of the Iowa Academy of General Dentistry and the Des Moines District Dental Society, was a member of the Iowa State Board of Health, served as a spokesperson for the American Dental Association, held a medical staff appointment at Iowa Methodist Medical Center, and served as Volunteer Advisor and Dental Director of the Community Health Centers of Southern Iowa.
In 1985, Bill and Sibyl bought an acreage in Decatur County on which they established Timberhill, a vineyard and winery that was a pioneer in the contemporary Iowa wine industry and a producer of some award-winning vintages. They also restored the land of Timberhill into one of the finest examples of oak savanna ecosystem in the country and developed a plan with The Nature Conservancy for its preservation in perpetuity. Bill played a leadership role with the Iowa wine growers and the Southern Iowa Oak Savanna Alliance, evangelizing for the diversification of the state's agricultural production and its ecology. After retiring fully from the practice of dentistry, Bill resettled permanently to Leon and enjoyed the new country life he and Sibyl built at Timberhill.
Bill was a big-hearted man who greeted strangers with a smile, never forgot a face or name or life story, and took joy in understanding that the richness of his own life was based on the tapestry of the many others he had the good fortune to know.
He was preceded in death by his parents, his beloved son Alex, and his sister Judy and her husband Fred King. He is survived by his wife Sibylla, his sons Christopher (Agustina Rodriguez) and Billy, his grandchildren Hugo Nakashima-Brown and Octavia Rodriguez-Brown, and his nieces Katiti and Michelle King.
A memorial service will be held on Friday, October 21 at 11:00 a.m. at Dunn's Chapel (Iles Funeral Home), 2121 Grand Avenue, Des Moines. Memorial contributions may be made to the Alex Brown Foundation, a nonprofit artists' residency established by the family in 2020 to honor the artistic legacy of Bill's son Alex, a painter, and bring artists of exceptional merit to work in Des Moines.
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