Francis Raymond Brown

Frank was born in 1927 Toronto, Canada to Alexander Brown, a bookbinder and native of Glasgow, Scotland, and Mary Josephine Romanado. After his father’s death in 1930, his mother took her two sons, Frank and his older brother Alexander, to Tupper Lake, New York, her birthplace. His mother later remarried, but her second husband died while she was pregnant with Frank’s half-brother, Kenneth Kenny. Despite the difficulties his mother faced keeping three boys fed and clothed, Frank remembered a wonderful childhood with a great deal of freedom to roam with his friends. He was especially proud of his 1943-44 Tupper Lake High championship basketball team. He was an all-around athlete, swimming, diving, skiing, skating, baseball – any sport was fine by him.

After he graduated from high school in 1945, he joined the Marines, but he was fortunate that the war had ended by the time he finished boot camp, so his service was short. He then attended Ithaca College, something that would not have been possible without the GI Bill. It was in Ithaca that he met the love of his life, Barbara Burke, who he married in 1951, soon after completing his degree. The young couple moved first to Binghamton NY, then to Colton NY, where he taught high school and coached football and basketball. Their first three children were born in Colton. In 1955, they moved to Ogdensburg, NY, where he took a job at Saint Mary’s Academy, teaching and coaching. He later switched to a career as a salesman and later regional manager for World Book Encyclopedia, a position he held until retirement in 1987.

Frank was an exemplary family man. He and Barbara had nine children to whom he was a loving and devoted father. He once turned down a promotion that would have required moving because he felt that Ogdensburg was a better place to raise his family. He was involved in his children’s lives to an extent that was unusual at the time.

Frank was a friendly, outgoing person who knew everyone, which meant that his children could not get away with anything without him finding out about it. He continued to volunteer coach local baseball and basketball teams while his boys were young, and was well known in Ogdensburg for his faithful attendance at all the high school basketball games and for playing in the city basketball league into his 50’s. He was a longtime member of the Lions Club, a membership that he continued after he and Barbara moved to Florida to be closer to the many family members who had relocated there.

In addition to his wife Barbara, Frank is survived by all of his nine children, Kathleen Brown of Boalsburg, PA, William Brown of Basel, Switzerland, Sharon Shirley of Altamonte Springs, FL, Michael Brown of Champaign, IL, Daniel Brown of Coral Gables, FL, Steven Brown of Tampa, FL, Maureen Zeitler of Mount Dora, FL, Timothy Brown of Charleston, SC, and Susan Brown of New York, NY. He was a beloved grandpa to 19 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.

Frank always said that he had a lucky life, and we were lucky to have known him.

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