Timothy Donlin Brown

Timothy Donlin Brown, 94, passed away peacefully at home in Houston on Tuesday, January 5, 2021.

Tim was born in Billings, Montana, on December 2, 1926, to Harold and Mary Louise Ellen Brown and grew up on the family farm.

Captivated by aircraft, in high school Tim frequently spent evenings refueling airplanes, many destined for war, at the Billings Municipal Airport.

Fresh out of high school, two months before his 18th birthday Tim enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served in the Asia Pacific during World War II. Honorably discharged, he joined his brother Dean in various enterprises in Canton, Texas.

While attending Tyler Junior College, school bus driver Tim met the love of his life, passenger and fellow student, LaRue Dove, and they married on December 24, 1950, in Colfax, Texas.

Tim and LaRue moved to Austin where he earned a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Texas in 1953. After stints elsewhere in the state, they moved to Houston in 1957, where Tim spent most of his professional career with Halliburton, but his life revolved around his family, faith, and country.

Tim was always active in the lives of his five children, 14 grandchildren, and 25 great-grandchildren. He and LaRue rarely missed their church, school, sporting, band, scouting, and community events. The extended family enjoyed camping near lakes and tales of Tim’s no-nonsense curriculum for teaching his grandchildren to water ski (“get out of the wake or back in the boat”), as well as his exploits slalom water skiing in his 60’s, are legend, as are his perfect longhand penmanship and the stories of him and his children learning to ride unicycles.

Tim grew up, and was always, tinkering with mechanical things, particularly engines – on airplanes, motorcycles, tractors, boats, race cars, jet skis, etc., but mostly automobiles. To the end, a family conversation rarely lacked, “How’s your transportation holding together?”

Many a grandchild fondly recalls Tim’s main food group, ice cream, sleep-over nighttime treats of sardines with mustard, dinner table math puzzles involving either fractions of frozen pizza or volumes of automotive liquids drained and replaced, determining their cardinal direction of travel after each turn while riding with him, learning manners, etiquette, and hygiene best practices, station wagon-loaded Astro Buddy ballpark excursions, and how to hang a towel so it will dry most efficiently, but the most often repeated grandchild remembrance is of “Mommom and Granddad always holding hands when walking together.”

Tim’s Catholic faith helped form the bedrock of his family, and his perennial involvement in parish activities set a wonderful example leading to many lifelong friendships. Through sacrifice, all his children attended Catholic schools through high school. At St. Peter the Apostle Catholic Church he served as a lector and for over a decade Tim and LaRue helped run Sunday night bingo. As an almost-50 year parishioner of St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church, he enjoyed Bible studies and senior trips, and he is most recently recognized for the large family group he brings to Lenten fish dinners.

Tim loved the United States, never met a stranger, and in his civic life served as a Harris County Republican precinct chairman for 50 consecutive years, being recognized by GOPAC as the 2007 Texas Republican of the Year. His and neighborhood children logged countless miles in their precincts distributing political literature, outrunning dogs, and learning about democracy.

Historians have noted that the Greatest Generation gave us a world far better than they inherited. Tim did his part. May his life be an inspiration to all of us.

Tim was predeceased by his beloved wife of 61 years, LaRue, who died on November 4, 2012, his parents, and his siblings, Harold Brown Jr., Dean Brown, Jo Anne Garrett, and Bobbie Sissons.

He is survived by children Jim Brown and wife Jackie, grandchildren Karl Brown, Christopher Brown and wife Hannah, and great-grandchildren Emmeline, Abigail, and Isaiah Brown, and Stephen Brown and wife Kayce, and great-grandchildren Delton, Bella, and Owen Brown; Nancy Beste and husband Randy, grandchildren Michael Beste and wife Kristin, and great-granddaughters Olivia and Emily Beste, Allison and husband Tim Delagarza, and great-grandchildren Caroline, Jacob, and Grace Delagarza, Jessica and husband Luis Gamboa, and great-grandchildren Eva, Jillian, L.J., and Briar Gamboa, and Ashley and husband Travis Hofmeister, and great-grandchildren Mackaylin, Kyler, Brayden, and Dylan Hofmeister; Cindy Hotze and husband Jim, grandchildren Melissa Hotze, Margaret Anne and husband Brian Skaug, and great-grandchildren Matthew, Julia, Elaine, and Claire Skaug, Tim Hotze and wife Meredith, and great-grandchildren Olivia and George Hotze, William Hotze, Lorraine Hotze, and Theresa Hotze; Patty Brown; and Dan Brown and wife Natalie, and granddaughter Nicole Brown.

The Brown family thanks wonderful caregivers who helped make the last several years of Tim’s life so pleasant. They include Tia Thomas, Della Wheeler, Nicki Sample, Erica Ayeh, Jemima Nzambi, Renee Woods, and especially Lillie Bonner, who first helped care for LaRue, and for the last eight years, Tim.

A family-only Mass of Christian Burial to be celebrated on Tuesday, January 12, 2021, will be preceded at 12:30 p.m. by the Rosary. The Rosary and Mass will be livestreamed and archived at https://m.facebook.com/ForestParkWestheimer/

and on YouTube at

https://youtu.be/rnM11MTbrGo

Tim’s family looks forward to welcoming extended family and friends to a Celebration of Tim’s Life and asks you to email [email protected] to be kept abreast of plans for that special occasion.

Donations in Tim’s name can be made to St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church or Amazing Place (https://www.amazingplacehouston.org/) where Tim was among the eldest participants.