Remembering an industry giant, Quest founder, Paul Brown, M.D.

People across Quest and the industry are remembering Paul Brown, M.D., who in 1967 founded MetPath - the company that eventually became Quest Diagnostics, for his innovation, vision and character. He died earlier this month at the age of 85.

“Dr. Brown was a true industry visionary,” said Jim Davis, Chairman, CEO & President. “He literally created the modern lab diagnostic testing industry and established a culture focused on quality, efficiency, and creating a healthier world that has in many ways carried over to our company today.”

Back in 1967, Paul, a pathology resident at Columbia Presbyterian, was moonlighting at New York City hospitals to supplement his meager resident’s pay. That’s when he discovered that “prices for laboratory tests were enormous, the service was abysmal, and accuracy was almost nonexistent.” Paul launched MetPath but had to do so with very little upfront capital. In fact, he used a $500 loan from his father-in-law to rent a two-room apartment in Manhattan’s Washington Heights neighborhood, which became the lab’s initial headquarters.

As Paul recalled to us in 2016:

“We saw the opportunity and needed to take advantage of it with as little money as possible. We saw Pap smears as the way to do it.

“Yes, we did some of our first testing in that bathtub. We put plywood over the tub to do our initial cytology testing.

From there, the company grew rapidly. Paul eventually sold the company to Corning in 1982 for approximately $145 million. (Corning later spun the business out to establish Quest Diagnostics as an independent company on January 1, 1997.) He and his wife then moved to Florida, where he got into hearing aids by creating another public healthcare company, HearUSA. It was acquired by Siemens in 2012 for $130 million.

Join us in extending condolences to Paul's loved ones and read his obituary to learn more: Paul A Brown Obituary - The Palm Beach Post.