Irene K Brown

Mrs. Brown was born in Philadelphia September 10, 1924, the daughter of Raymond D. and Julia L. Kershner. She attended Franklin High School in Philadelphia, and studied piano performance at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music. In 1942 she became involved in the nation’s war effort as a laboratory assistant at the Rohm & Haas Company in Philadelphia, where she took part in developing fabric treatments against the potential battlefield use of poison gas. There she met her future husband, Richard W Brown; the couple married at a small ceremony in Philadelphia on September 23, 1944.

On Mr. Brown’s return from service as a U.S. Naval officer in the Pacific, the couple moved to Appleton, Wisconsin, where Mr. Brown pursued a Ph.D. in paper chemistry. On graduation, Dr. Brown was recruited by the Hammermill Paper Company, and Mrs. Brown moved with her husband to the company’s headquarters in Erie, Pennsylvania, where they spent much of the rest of their lives.

In 1954, shortly before the Salk vaccine against polio was introduced, both Mrs. Brown and her husband were stricken with polio, a life-altering event. Mrs. Brown made a full recovery, but Dr. Brown was forced to use crutches and a leg brace for the rest of his life. (In spite of this disability, Dr. Brown rose to become Vice President of Technology for Hammermill.) The episode led Mrs. Brown to volunteer for major fundraising roles with the March of Dimes, which then targeted the treatment and rehabilitation of polio survivors. In 1955 she was named Erie’s Polio Mother of the Year.

In addition to her work with the March of Dimes, Mrs. Brown served as a volunteer board member of numerous Erie institutions, including the Millcreek Branch of the YWCA (chair), the Erie Area Northfield League (chair), the Kearsarge Elementary School PTA (president), the Sarah Reed Retirement Center, the Erie Art Center, the Lake Shore Women’s Association (president), the Lake Shore Garden Club (president), and the Visiting Nurse Association.

Mrs. Brown pursued her long-standing musical interests as a professional piano teacher in Erie for many years. She was also the organizer of many poetry-reading groups: first, in Erie, and later, after her husband's death, at Linden Ponds Retirement Community in Hingham.

She is survived by her three children, Peter G. Brown, of New York City, Anne (Nancy) B. West, of Sapphire, North Carolina, and Philip Y. Brown, of Norwell; by seven grandchildren; and by two great grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at the Derby Performing Arts Center at Linden Ponds, 207 Linden Ponds Way, Hingham, MA at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 3. Interment will be in the cemetery of the Friends Meetinghouse in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, at a later date.