Born in India to missionaries, Brand was sent to England at age 9 to be educated. He stayed until he got his medical degree (and a new wife, who he met in medical school). He returned to India to teach surgery, and pioneered reconstructing hands and feet that were damaged by leprosy and, later, revised his methods to help diabetics.
His techniques were world renowned: the U.S. Public Health Service recruited him to work at the National Leprosarium in Carville, La., where he became chief of rehabilitation. He also spent 20 years doing research and teaching his techniques at Louisiana State University’s Medical College, ensuring his legacy lives on in other surgeons. His textbook Clinical Mechanics of the Hand is still a standard reference. He retired in 1980 and moved to Seattle, but continued to teach surgery at the University of Washington. He died July 8 from a subdural hematoma at age 88.