With an office at the downtown bus station in the late 1970s, Les Brown had a front row seat for the growing problem of homelessness .

And instead of turning his head or avoiding eye contact, Mr. Brown made it his fight, helping to found the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless in 1980 and battling for better lives for the down-and- out for more than two decades.

Mr. Brown, who friends and relatives said was Illinois' longest surviving heart transplant recipient, died late Monday of complications from the cancer he developed after years of taking anti-rejection drugs that weakened his immune system. He was 64.

A resident of the North Side Bowmanville neighborhood, Mr. Brown was a mentor and activist with a biting sense of humor, someone who knew how to make a splash.

'Thought that housing was a right'

He had a man dress up as a tree and follow Mayor Daley during the 1996 Democratic National Convention to contrast the city's beautification campaign against its homeless efforts. And he once was arrested for trying to deliver a valentine that read "Do you have a heart for the homeless?" to Daley's home during a protest over the demolition of single-room occupancy buildings in the South Loop.

His efforts not only brought the plight of the homeless out in the open, but also led to funding, jobs programs, housing and other initiatives, said Ed Shurna, executive director of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless.

Mr. Brown "was the chief strategist and idea man behind most of the coalition's many successes," Shurna said.

The coalition was launched as Mr. Brown served as director of social work services for the Travelers and Immigrants Aid Society, now the Heartland Alliance. Mr. Brown documented the growing number of people turning up to live at the Greyhound bus terminal, Union Station and O'Hare Airport.

"Nobody at that time was talking about the homeless. They were talking about bums and Skid Row," said his wife of 16 years, Diana Leifer. "But you couldn't ignore the numbers. Something had to be done.

"He used to say, 'It's not as if there was a sudden epidemic of character flaws.' It was a failure of social policy to provide an adequate safety net. He always thought that housing was a right."

The coalition was formed with the help of the Travelers and Immigrants Aid Society, the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, Catholic Charities and other service providers. Mr. Brown was its first president and became its executive director in 1988. From 1990 until his death, he served as the coalition's director of policy.

'We have really lost a leader'

"For me, he was really the moral compass of the movement," said Karen Singer, who worked alongside Mr. Brown and is now executive director of the YWCA Evanston/North Shore. "So persistently throughout the years, he tried to give homeless people a voice. . . . We have really lost a leader."

His accomplishments include leading protests that resulted in low- income units being established in the government-subsidized West Loop Presidential Towers complex, and using a little-known federal law to successfully apply for lakefront land near Navy Pier. That parcel was to be used as gardens to provide work for the homeless, and was later swapped for land on the South Side that became the "Growing Home" agriculture-job training program.

Mr. Brown also helped acquire 10 acres in Marseilles that is now farmed by homeless people from Chicago.

He was born William Leslie Brown Jr. in Tampa, Fla., and grew on a small farm in tiny Doraville, Ga., just north of Atlanta, where he learned his love for the land. He was an avid gardener and birdwatcher and loved to hike, fish and canoe, his wife said.

He earned a bachelor's degree from Erskine College in South Carolina and a master's from Loyola University. Between degrees he enlisted in the Air Force and served as a medical corpsman in England.

In 1984, he suffered a heart attack and received a transplant at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood. He was the hospital's longest-surviving heart transplant recipient, hospital officials said.

'That heart was so valiant'

His transplant came from a 19-year-old Atlanta car accident victim. After the surgery, Mr. Brown asked to say goodbye to his old heart, and his doctor "gave him a tour" of that heart, showing the damage from the heart attack as well as repair work, his wife said.

"The surgeon surmised he was probably the only living man to hold his own heart," said Leifer, adding the new heart was a perfect tissue match.

"That heart was so valiant," she said. "It took him to his last breath, and it worked so hard to keep him alive. I like to think he did so many wonderful things with the extra time he had. And his heart had room in it for me."

In addition to his wife, he is survived by his son, Jesse; his daughter, Mari Herreras-Zinman; his sister, Claudia Lewis, and two grandchildren.

Mr. Brown donated his body to science, his wife said. A memorial service will be held in May.

Shamus Toomey, "Les Brown, 64; helped found  Chicago  Coalition for the  Homeless," Chicago Sun Times, 04/13/05