Dr. Mary Crist Brown was a chaplain and a teacher of chaplains — a spiritual rock for hospital workers, patients and anxious families, and an educator who trained seminarians, clergy and lay people in the field of pastoral care.

In the intensive care unit at Northside Hospital, "she stayed grounded and calm in the midst of the storm, which is very helpful in traumatic situations," said Dr. Gene Locke of Roswell, Northside's manager of chaplaincy.

Family (ENLARGE)

Dr. Mary Crist Brown in her office at Northside Hospital, where she served as the chaplain in ICU.

"She was in the trenches with the staff, and she was very supportive when the patient wasn't doing well and the family had to face some tough decisions or if they were grieving and distressed," he said.

The memorial service for Dr. Brown is 2:30 p.m. today at Oakhurst Baptist Church. Dr. Brown, 53, of Atlanta died of complications from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma May 20 at Northside Hospital. The body was cremated. Cremation Society of the South, Marietta, is in charge of arrangements.

The Maryland native earned a bachelor's degree from Agnes Scott College in 1977, a master's in divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1980 and a doctor of theology degree from Columbia Theological Seminary in 1996. She spent six years as an associate pastor at a Presbyterian church in Jacksonville.

"She was intensely interested in learning more about theology and more about how people believe and what they believe and how your personality develops around that — the combination of the two," said her partner of 18 years, the Rev. Mary Margaret Yearwood, of Atlanta.

"She was always striving to improve her spiritual life and always wanting to teach others something new," her partner said.

Dr. Locke said, "She was very sharp about assessing people's psychological and spiritual needs and putting it in the larger context of the human condition and her own theological world view."

Away from her stressful job, Dr. Brown rarely talked about work. Instead, the quiet counselor helped rear her partner's two children, watched movies and played soccer with a vengeance.

"She was so sweet and polite everywhere else, but on the soccer field, watch out," her partner said.

Dr. Brown prodded her reluctant family members to go camping, celebrated her 50th birthday at the Grand Canyon and renewed herself every summer with a Tybee Island vacation.

"She didn't attend church very much in the last years," her partner said. "She would rather go on trips to the outdoors to meditate and be at one with the world."

Her taste in reading veered toward two extremes, her partner said — "either spiritual and psychological books, or trashy novels."

Dr. Brown authored the book "Free To Believe: Liberating Images of God for Women," which grew out of her doctoral dissertation. And she was a strong advocate for women in the ministry, Dr. Locke said.

After she joined Northside in 2002, she continued her private practice as a pastoral counselor at the Care and Counseling Center of Georgia in Decatur.

Nancy Wilkes of Decatur said Dr. Brown "probably added more value to my life than just about anyone else. She was right up there at the top."

"I didn't figure out until my 40s that I was gay," Ms. Wilkes said, "and I wasn't sure if God liked me. But she helped me see that he liked me whether I was gay or straight or purple — and not just that he liked me, but he was tickled with me and crazy about me."

"She left me with some great tools in my toolbox," she said. "She's the reason I know God loves me and I can love myself."

Survivors other than her partner include two brothers, Briscoe "Buz" Brown of Goshen, Va., and Bill Brown of Raleigh, N.C.; and a sister, Caroline Brown, of Goshen.