He performed the day-to-day job of White House press secretary for barely two months, but there is good reason why Jim Brady held that title for all eight years of the Reagan administration — and why the White House Briefing Room is named in his honor today.

Brady’s brave survival of a near-fatal head wound during John Hinckley’s attempt on President Ronald Reagan’s life in 1981 — and his and his wife, Sarah’s, tireless advocacy for gun control — made him a consequential figure whose life’s work far transcended the daily cut-and-thrust of Washington hacks and flacks. His family announced Monday that Brady has died, at the age of 73.

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