Mr. John Warren Brown

John Warren Brown, a lifelong Texan, was born on Monday, Sept 24, 1951 in Dallas, Texas. He entered his eternal rest on Sunday, March 19, 2023 at the age of 71 with his family beside him. John was the 6th of 8 children born to Edward M. and Era Nell Brown. John grew up in a close knit family of three boys and five girls. When the family grew, so did the actual house structure. It was a family where the older siblings taught the youngers to walk, ride bikes, water ski, drive and hang the most elaborate Christmas lights in the neighborhood.

The family would travel by car, a very packed car, to Colorado often. Primitive camping, waking with dew on his cot and when the temperature dropped overnight at Half Moon Campsite a full 50 degrees, a quick breaking of camp and a warm drive to a local café at 5:30 a.m. John remembered cloth diapers being hung out the car windows to dry while on the freeway. On an earlier trip to Colorado the family stopped for breakfast in West Texas. Betty remembers: “the children had never seen whole bacon strips because Nanny had always cut it in half. The guy was so tickled at all of the kids being excited about bacon strips. He brought out platters of bacon and pancakes and we ate until we were full. He didn’t charge daddy more and that made all of it magical”. His Dad liked to fish but rarely caught anything because he was teaching them all to bait a hook. It was never quiet enough to catch fish but he still enjoyed casting a lure.

John’s Dad, an Union Electrician, always wanted to take his kids to see the job sites. On one trip they ate at Andy’s in Rockdale. There were gigantic platters of catfish and fries. A great meal older sister Beverly remembers. Deb says “on one of those trips they served us tartar sauce and none of us had ever had it. We ate it like it was a salad or at least tasted that way”.

John went to Little Friends School at 4 years old, L.O. Donnell elementary and graduated from Kimball High School in 1969. He lived at the Oak Cliff family home from birth through high school. John and his siblings supported their parent’s endeavors whether it be their Father’s AA Electric business or their Mother’s rental properties in downtown Dallas. They worked together and made many memories.

John remembers bonding with his father and his Uncles Bob, Roy and Mickey when he went to work with his Dad on weekends and school holidays/summer from the time he was 8 years old. They worked on cellular towers throughout Central Texas, the Old Red Courthouse in downtown Dallas in addition to working on homes in the Highland Park area of Dallas. John remembered and shared (during a road trip with Kathleen) about 1966 when he was 15 years old. He was with his Uncle Bob Brown, brother Ed and father Edward. They went from Dallas to Lockhart putting in seven cell towers for ATT. The towers and building that they worked on were built after the Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba. The towers and buildings were made to survive a nuclear blast 1 mile away supposedly. The towers were about 30 miles apart and were called “microwave towers”. It took all summer “and then some” John said. He had to go back to school before it was finished. June and July were SO HOT, “I don’t mind telling you”. The structures were white gravel/rock and reflected the heat. They were wiring the buildings for air conditioning to protect the computers inside from the Texas heat. John remembers that Uncle Bob was a neat freak and they stayed in nice places.

John remembered that his only solo trip with his Dad and Mom was to visit the 40 acres in Terlingua, Texas. It was scrub land but his mother had bought the land from a guy who showed up at the door to sell it to her. She had already bought Colorado lots and the man would come by the house monthly to get her payments.

Croquet was a family sport from childhood through recent years. John knew every mallet technique, rule, courtesy, offensive and defensive strategy and taught his family and grandsons as much as they wanted to know. Basketball was a family sport as well and nephew David remembers his uncle John teaching him how to throw a football with fingers on the football laces. John played intramural basketball at UT and played on pick up teams/leagues in Dallas.

The state fair was a family tradition growing up in the Edward and Era Nell family. John had two memorable years at the fair. The Steve Meeks story was never tape recorded but every time John told it he laughed, we all laughed to tears. It involved John’s father making donuts in the state fair gravel parking lot with an only child friend of Johns. The accelerator stuck and with a cigar hanging from his dad’s mouth, his dad was leaning under the dashboard trying to get the accelerator unstuck. After the dust settled, the car came to a halt and Stevie’s parents (who were watching it all) caught their breath, Stevie looked at John and said, “wow, your dad is cool!!!”

The second memorable state fair event happened when John was about 5 or 6. He got separated from his family and was taken to the tent where lost kids were taken. He was told to sit on a bleacher and be quiet…not cry. Imagine all the kids crying. Well, after a long while he spotted his mom come through the tent door. Mind you, he was told to be quiet. He thought for sure she would see him but she looked around and left. It took a while but she returned and found him. Something you don’t forget and something John and Kathleen had in common since she got lost at Marineland of the Pacific as a young girl.

Another often told story was of driving in the back seat with his sister Bonnie. His mother’s mother, Nanny was driving. Beside her was Uncle Dimore. Very petite Nanny, whose name was Minnie, was sitting low on the seat with eyes barely above the dashboard, hands high on the steering wheel and she was driving close to the curbs. She ultimately drove through a wooden barricade and up on the sidewalk. John remembers his Uncle saying, “Minnie, I don’t think you’re supposed to be driving up here”. John said he and Bonnie were scared in a way that was later fun to tell about.

A lifelong memory he and his siblings cherish is that their mother took them out of school the day that JFK came and drove through downtown Dallas on 11/22/63. As a 6th grader John had a little Brownie Kodak camera and took pictures of the President and his wife as they drove right past him not more than 8 feet away. Three pictures he took. John said the President was a most handsome man, all tan and with a full head of hair. Jackie was beautiful in her pink suit. The family remembers driving home and hearing sires and wondering what had happened. John also had a classmate with the last name of Tippens and whose father was an officer that sacrificed his life that day too. The local drug store, “lost” his roll of film but John remembers his Daddy went up to Mr. Page at Page’s drugstore to advocate for his young sons lost treasure. They returned to him some random 35 mm negatives that were then lost somehow.

John remembered the hot Texas summers growing up and the swamp cooler in the living room. He said they always ate a lot of ice cream. His upstairs bedroom was hot and at midnight he could finally fall asleep. He and his siblings played outside during the summer. Lots of games, tether ball and volleyball.

A high school part time job was getting up early and driving to the Dallas Morning News office and taking customer service (complaint) calls from subscribers. The newspapers were thrown in the wrong place, not thrown at all or got out of the plastic bag and got wet. John worked after high school with a man named Jerry Seymore. Jerry lived next door to the English family on Dawes Drive. David English was John’s good friend growing up even though David was a couple years younger than John. Jerry Seymore asked John to help him paint. One job was Denny’s in Oklahoma City. As they were eating they saw a tornado run parallel to them and John saw mattress springs up in the funnel.

John held various jobs in college and stayed out of college often to help his parents Electric Business, AA Electric keep its payroll. He tried a job driving 18 wheeler trucks overnight in the north Texas area. He took anyone along for a night if they wanted. Everyone fell asleep but it made the night easier John said. John worked a brief while at UT’s Castilian Dorm cafeteria washing dishes. That didn’t last long. He also became an expert pancake flipper while working at an Austin Pancake restaurant.

John met Kathleen at the World of Pentecost in Austin in January 1980. He was sitting on a pew towards the back. It was after service and she said hi and welcomed him. There first date was a church BBQ and John told her she made his heart putter like a puppy rolling in wet grass. It was a quick courtship and he proposed outside of a South Austin Pizza pallor on June 6th. He told her they belonged together like meatballs and spaghetti. They married on July 12, 1980. It was the summer of a record setting heat wave and the reception was held in the back yard of their first rental house at 4400 Avenue F in historic Hyde Park. They moved shortly after returning from a 3 day honeymoon to San Antonio where they visited the DeGoya Mansion and the River Walk.

They were only looking for a two bedroom apartment and found one. The management company, Davis and Associates asked if they would like to manage the complex. So they began managing an 18 unit apartment complex of one bedroom apartments while John continued classes at UT. It was extra income, helped with rent and they made new friends. John graduated from UT Austin on December 24, 1982, with a degree in Business Administration. It was his father’s birthday. It was 10+ years from high school graduation but he was diligent, brilliant and studied hard.

His first job out of college was dressing up and driving to an office out on Bee Caves Road and selling shares in oil drilling investments. He had to make cold calls to Dentists, Doctors and became very knowledgeable of the oil/land industry. The highlight was that he shared his faith with his boss and brought him to church where his boss was baptized.

He made a connection with a man named Chris Dysart. Chris was building spec houses and needed a good tape/floater and painter. In the summer of 1984 there was a house in Pflugerville, Texas that wasn’t selling so Chris offered it to us at a price we couldn’t turn down. We became homeowners. It was the very first subdivision in Pflugerville and backed up to a creek. The first time a hard storm/rain came that trickling creek swelled to within 15 feet of the back porch. The subdivision was also built on a massive ant mound colony and they learned to double wrap everything in the kitchen. Even unopened cookies. John tackled the ants and they were gone in a month.

Around that time John started his own painting company named ‘Wood Treat’ because John knew how to treat every kind of wood surface. We brought Keith home from the hospital to that Gatlinburg address and lived there until John’s back was a challenge. Keith was born in May of 1985 and by March of 1986 we were loaded up and moving to Dallas to be near family. The family of three lived on Dawes Drive for about four months and enjoyed being close to grandparents and daily play visits from toddler cousins.

John got a job at the City of Dallas in 1986 in utilities and water treatment work. Baby Michelle was born in July 1987 and made us a family of four. When Alliance Airport was being built in 1991 north of Fort Worth, there was need for someone to oversee the construction of a small water treatment plant that would treat the run off water produced by washing all the large cargo aircraft. The EPA didn’t want the fuel and oil polluted water to find its way into the nearby creeks, etc. When John was driving with three men, one of which was co-owner Bob Nichols, to the presentation/pitch meeting, Bob Nichols was impressed with John and asked Coy Veech, “where did you find this guy?’. Coy responded with, “the Lord doth provide”.

There were only 75 employees at FNI at that time. By 2023 there were over 1000 employees in 40 different states and a couple foreign countries. John was offered a transfer to Mexico when North American Free Trade Agreement was first happening. He was also offered a job in Dubai in the early 2000s. That one job at Alliance turned into a 35 year career as a Construction Project Manager. He was able to be part of challenging and rewarding infrastructure projects all over North Texas. Some favorite jobs were construction of Terminal D and the People Mover/Rental Car Facility at DFW Airport. Fort Polk in Louisiana, Lake Granbury Dam, Possum Kingdom Lake Dam, Lake Ray Roberts were lake jobs he would take Kathleen to visit on the weekends. City of Denton, City of Keller, City of Frisco, City of Balch Springs were jobsites in recent years. A railway parking lot for a semi conductor plant (that got scrapped by President Clinton) in Waxahachie, Texas was exciting but short lived. At the Decordova Bend Dam at Granbury, Texas in 2007-2008/09 John helped with the recoating of the tainter gates. He was the coating inspector. He framed a photo of the draped off gates and when asked what he enjoyed most about the job he said, “being outside and around the lake and water”.

When he worked at sites away from the metroplex he would spend his lunch hours driving around the area researching the history of the area. He especially enjoyed researching old buildings he would come across. Nearby 1800 forts or military outposts intrigued him and he shared a story of trying to get to a fort gift shop in the pouring rain to get his wife and daughter a piece of turquoise jewelry only to be turned away because he got there too late. He revisited that same Fort Polk, Louisiana on later trips to Mississippi.

One of his last jobs was to be the go between for a nearby city and the contractor. The job was building a new water pump station and laying a water pipe through a delicate and beloved area of the city. John’s immediate boss told Kathleen “that they were scared to death of the job and with the city manager/engineers. They would be touchy and demanding. But the job had JW’s name all over it. It would take someone who could stay on top of the specs and day to day and night to night details and JW did it.” The city engineers liked JW and the job was a success.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s John’s older brother and his wife, Ed and Carol had a lake house on Eagle Mountain Lake. It was always an open invitation for 4th of July, showers, birthdays, Easter or just because you wanted to enjoy some “lake time”. Lots of memories were made boating, jet skiing, fireworks with great food and fun.

Thru the years John enjoyed taking his family on vacations to places such as Mt. Rushmore, Washington DC, Disney World, Grand Canyon, the California trees and beach, Galveston, Corpus Christi, Arkansas, Shiloh Civil War Battlefield and Appomattox Courthouse. He always made sure the family benefitted from any historical pull outs and nearby National Parks or Seashores. He only took the family camping a few times as he said he got enough while growing up.

In the fall of 2013 he and Kathleen celebrated their birthdays (one moth apart exactly) in Galveston. John said he never knew that the beach could be so relaxing. He’d only been to the beach in the Texas heat. He was knowledgeable of the 1900 Galveston hurricane and enjoyed visiting the old mansions that survived in that area of the city. Vacations that John and Kathleen took after Keith and Michelle married were to Hot Springs, AR, the Apron Museum in Iuka, Mississippi, Beaumont, Texas, Galveston and Kentucky. In February of 2022 John was gifted a trip to the McDonald Observatory near Marfa, Texas. It had been on his bucket list and an added treat was touring Fort Davis nearby. It was in KY that they toured the Ark Experience and accidentally discovered The Corvette Museum in Bowling Green. Recently they drove to to Flint in east Texas to attend an open house for Dove’s Haven Retreat.

Teaching was John’s love language. He taught his son and daughter to drive. Michelle and Kathleen remember holding hands in the back seat of the conversion van on a trip to FL with newly permit issued Keith being told to “give it the gas” as he accelerated onto a highway somewhere in LA. They were both given the wheel on busy rush hour traffic on Denton Hwy immediately after they got their permits.

John built a shed for the backyard from a kit in 2010. He made sure to give it a dozen cement piers plus rebar anchors and three coats of paint. Keith and Michelle helped at every step and learning much about building. Of course it was summer and of course they retreated inside to watch the Tour D France during the afternoons. John enjoyed watching the bike race and the French countryside every summer.

Family pets were always outside dogs, but Susie in 1989 and Katie in 2000 always had “condos with doors” plus temp controlled space heaters properly wired and positioned for maximum safety and comfort. Pets were pets unless they passed and John grieved them as much as any of us or more. He liked having a dog in the backyard to bark if intruders came (animal or human) and to talk to while he puttered on projects.

Building with lego was a hobby he enjoyed with Keith and Michelle from their childhoods until teen years. Making paper replicas of the sunken Titanic was a month long project once. When grandchildren arrived the Lego adventure began again in full swing. Christmas villages, a lego reproduction of the first Thanksgiving to mention a few. He befriended another FNI employee David Schroeder who enjoyed collecting lego and they always kept an eye out for what the other was looking for. John enjoyed finding replacement toys for grandchildren and a plethora of vintage Little Tikes fire engine trucks and people. He always enjoyed throwing the football with Ethan and Evan and playing with firetrucks and shooting basketball. After John got his electric bike he and Grammy took the boys on the bike trail.

John was a lifelong learner. He mastered anything he put his hands and mind to such as juggling, unicycle, guitar, tap dancing, car rebuilding, piano rebuilding. He even gave scuba diving a try while in college. He taught his son, daughter, nephews plus many young painters how to properly scrap, sand, prep, caulk and paint a variety of surfaces. Throughout his career he would purchase text books that gave him needed insight into concrete, wiring, HVAC, massive water pipes, city and state codes for everything. He bought books on brain building, old Indian reservations, brick laying, How To Double Your Vocabulary to name a few. He was a master at brain teasers, metal maze games and was always glad to untangle Kathleen or Michelle's thin chained necklaces.

John worshipped at Gateway Church since 2003 and at the NRH Campus since it was built in 2007. He took great interest in the groundbreaking ceremonies and liked watching the buildings remodeled or being finished. He had listened to some of the best preachers of his time: Shambach, Hagin and Milton Greene. They each built up his faith. Faith and family are John’s legacy. It will take years to go through all his notes from sermons heard on cassette, dvd, in person, on his iphone or smart tv. Forsaking the assembling on the Lord’s Day (or Saturday as made available) was not an option. He knew that community with other believers was where lifelong strength and keys to victory during the week were found. When he got a smartphone he could be seen during worship typing on his phone the names of the worship songs. When asked, he said he believed those songs were not chosen by accident and that the key to victory in the week to come was won in rehearsing those songs Monday thru Friday.

John had a wonderful singing voice. He enjoyed singing in the evenings just any worship song that came to mind. He was also good at singing John Denver and Elvis Presley songs. In the simple teaching or preaching (he knew there was a difference) messages and times of worship that happened on a weekly basis were important to him. He was a rock to his family and a steadfast anchor. His faith made him a pillar of strength in hard times that we all gleaned from. That faith coupled with his degree in business administration and just his inherent common sense made him the person you wanted to talk to if things were rocky or there were hard decisions to be made.

Phrases he quote often were: “this life is just a proving ground” “telling the truth will never hurt you” “that was just a life lesson hard learned” “don’t spend a dollar to save a nickel” “you don’t get any do-overs” “ help the unfortunate”, “your word is your bond”, “relax and keep trying” …..just to name a few.

At Johns memorial service Keith and Michelle shared the following:

How do you summarize a man’s life in only a few words. As Michelle and I talked this week about our father, so many of the stories, memories, and life lessons came down to some of his favorite things to say. We felt it would honor him to share a few of these with you today.

(Michelle) Stay together

Whether we were at a store, an amusement park, out riding bikes or on vacation, I remember my dad would always say “stay together.” If there was an option to split up or stay together, I knew what he would choose. “Stay together” wasn’t just about physical togetherness. Over time, I grew to know this phrase to also mean “stay united”. If Dad heard there was conflict or argument between one of us, he would make it a point to encourage us to work it out as best as we could and not let it bring division. “Stay together.”

(Keith) Just tell me what you need

If anyone would get up at 2am and drive to your house to help you with something, it was Dad. If the grandkids needed a ride to school, he was up at 4am, at your house at 5am and to his job in Frisco at 8am. (He very rarely asked for favors or help for himself. In fact, even just a few months ago, I remember he called me and said, “Hey, I’m sorry to bother you, but I need your help with something.” I didn’t even ask what it was and just said, “yes, whatever it is, I’ll help!” The errand was a small and simple one, but I always felt honored when I got a chance to say to HIM “just tell me what YOU need.”). The last few months of his life were hard for me because for the first time in his life he would text me and say “are you coming over tonight?” He never wanted to be a burden, only a blessing. But to me, time with my dad was always a blessing.

(Michelle) Do what’s best for you

Dad said this in so many different ways, but it always communicated selflessness to me. “Do what you need to do,” he would say. Even if that decision was to his own detriment, he put others’ needs before his own. If what was best for you cost HIM something, he was willing to pay it. He also understood that life is full of hard and complicated decisions, and you can’t always make everyone else happy. “Do what’s best for you.” But you always understood to ask for his opinion, which means you would get his full opinion, so make sure you have the time to hear it all.

(Keith) If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right

There was no “quick fix” with dad. And if you put your name to something, let your name be what you value. One time I called my dad to come over and help me hang up some cameras in our house to keep an eye on the girls while they slept. After we hung them up and had the cords tucked out of the way, he looked at them and said “the girls might tug on those or pull them down, we need to cover them”. Most people would staple them to the wall or put a piece of furniture in front of the cords, not my dad. He went to the store and got dozens of pieces of plastic cord covers. Then he measured the exact distance from the top of the camera to the outlet, and cut specific sections to cover the wires completely. And then, he wanted the colors to match, and went back to the store and got specific paint so they would blend in as best they could. He loved a job well done. He loved knowing his grandchildren were safe.

(Michelle) Let your yes be yes and your no be no

Dad was a man of few words, but when he spoke it was worth listening to. He was not flippant or careless when he talked. He said what he meant, and he meant what he said. If he said he would do something or be somewhere at a certain time, you KNEW he would keep his word. He always taught us to keep our word too. If we had said “yes” to someone, we needed to honor our word. He was a man of integrity and worked hard to build credibility and trust, showing others that he had their back.

(Keith) Keep a winning attitude

Keep your chin up, keep a good attitude. Dad always encouraged you to find the silver lining in things, and be positive. He loved hearing “good news” and I can’t tell you how many times over the last 20 years I had something “good” happen to me, and my first thought was to call me dad. Our conversation generally went something like this:

I’d start: Hey dad, what’s up?

Dad: Oh the temperature, taxes, and the cost of a gallon of gas

(I knew he’d answer “what’s up” with literally things that were increasing, but I did it anyways)

Me: Well, I got some good news today, do you have a few minutes?

Dad: I can always stand to hear some good news

And then I’d tell him something good that happened in my life, at work, or in the news

Our conversations were quick and he’d always end them the same way “I love good news. I love you too”

(Michelle) There’s the right way, the wrong way, and dad’s way

I remember Dad saying: “People may teach you a different way to do it, but I’m going to teach you the right way.” “Dad’s way” usually started with a comprehensive background on the history of everything you were about to do with him, before you even started. For instance, working on a paint project with my dad. There was always education prior to the start of prepwork- types of paints, types of solvents, types of finishes, brushes and more. And then came cleaning and sanding the surface, which could take hours to days. He would tell you how important the prep work is because any imperfections at this stage would only be magnified in the end result. Next, tarping, taping, sometimes retarping and retaping, choosing the right brushes and pans. The prep work sometimes took 2 hours and the painting job only took 30 minutes. I can hear him saying: “Remember to hold the paint brush like you hold a pencil.” There were no shortcuts or quick fixes. “Dad’s way” usually took longer, cost more money, but in the end you knew you wouldn’t have to hire someone else to fix it later.

(Keith) It’ll be ok

No matter what, it will be ok. Dad would always say that. In difficult moments or hard times, those few words always seemed to provide comfort “It’ll be ok.” My dad was one of those larger than life men, nothing seemed to shake him. Dad used to joke that “he knew what was in every book in every library in the world? Words.” And no matter what the challenge life threw at you, he knew it would be ok.

Over the last few months of his life. I was waiting for this moment when my dad would be human. When I’d see him say he was afraid, and that maybe things wouldn’t be ok. But he never wavered. Not a single time. And I know that if he was here today, he would tell us that it’s going to be ok too.

Finally, dad loved the water. When he could sense that you were tossing and turning, he’d pull out another common saying. “Stay even keel” or be steadfast. And even though he’s no longer with us on this earth, I know his memory and legacy will be here to help us all steady the boat, as we move forward in life.

He was preceded in homecoming by his parents Edward Maurice and Era Nell as well as every aunt and uncle in the Brown family. Also brother in law James Clarke and sister in law Carol Brown. He is survived by his wife Kathleen, son Keith (wife Amanda), and their two daughters Eliana and Viviana. Also, survived by his daughter, Michelle Bogenreif (husband Jay) and their two sons, Ethan and Evan. Surviving siblings include Patricia Taylor, Betty Clarke, Edward Brown Jr., Robert Brown, Beverly (Don Cheek), Bonnie (Tom Taylor), Debbie (Randy Davis) and many nieces and nephews. The family is especially grateful for co-workers that became friends. We are all richer for knowing our John (JW) Brown.

* * * * * * * * * *

John Warren Brown, a lifelong Texan, was born on Monday, Sept 24, 1951 in Dallas, Texas. He entered his

eternal rest on Sunday, March 19, 2023 at the age of 71 with his family beside him. John was the 6th of 8

children born to Edward Maurice and Era Nell Brown. He lived at the Oak Cliff, Texas family home and

graduated from Kimball High School in 1969.

He married Kathleen on July 12, 1980 and graduated from UT Austin on December 24, 1982. John held

various jobs in college and had his own painting business in the early 1980’s called “Wood Treat”. A job

at the City of Dallas in 1986 led him to a job change and a 35 year career with Freese and Nichols

Consulting Engineering. His role as a Construction Project Manager allowed him to be part of challenging

and rewarding infrastructure projects. Some of his favorite jobs were at DFW Airport, Fort Polk in

Louisiana, Lake Granbury Dam, and Possum Kingdom Lake.

John attended Gateway Church since 2003, and worshiped at the North Richland Hills Campus. John was

a lifelong learner. He mastered anything he put his hands and mind to such as juggling, unicycle, guitar,

tap dancing, car restoration, and piano rebuilding. He taught his son, daughter, nephews plus many

young painters how to properly scrape, sand, prep, caulk, tape, float, and paint a variety of surfaces. In

recent years he enjoyed revisiting Lego building.

He is survived by his wife Kathleen, son Keith (wife Amanda), and their two daughters Eliana and Viviana.

Also, survived by his daughter Michelle Bogenreif (husband Jay) and their two sons, Ethan and Evan.

Surviving siblings include Patricia Taylor, Betty Clarke, Edward Jr. Brown, Bob Brown, Beverly Cheek,

Bonnie Taylor, Debbie Davis and their spouses and many nieces and nephews. The family is especially

grateful for co-workers that became friends. We are all richer for knowing our John (JW) Brown.