Since my secondary school days, i have always seen it as one of those errors in english language.
As Obituary always tell us: "A person died after a brief illness".
Now If there is no convincing grammatical 'whatever' on ground to say its right. It remains so so wrong.
Its obvious from the statement, that the person fell sick, got well and then died. Lol

NL grammarians, I want to know.

So it should be 'He died during a brief illness' right?

AK6464:
So it should be 'He died during a brief illness' right?

yes, unless a grammarian says otherwise.

Only two alternatives I can think of:
1. He died from a brief illness.
2. He died of natural causes.

We need a grammarians?

OK...nice observation! @ OP: as obituary always TELLS not tell. I wonder if obituaries talk anyway. I agree with Charix(number 1) and AK6464.

Was diagnosed of a minor disease, got treated, was responding to treatment and at some point that the patient ought to be discharged, he suddenly passed on... meaning he died of a brief illness or died after being treated of a minor sickness....


My humble opinion though..

Equalizer:
Was diagnosed of a minor disease, got treated, was responding to treatment and at some point that the patient ought to be discharged, he suddenly passed on... meaning he died of a brief illness or died after being treated of a minor sickness....


My humble opinion though..

hmmm

MisterDreamz:
OK...nice observation!
@ OP: as obituary always TELLS not tell. I wonder if obituaries talk anyway.
I agree with Charix(number 1) and AK6464.

umh
thats grammatical error in the midst of grammatical confusion. Lol

fromnigeria:
umh thats grammatical error in the midst of grammatical confusion. Lol

What do u mean?