It is with much sadness that we note the loss of Don Brown, our dear friend and fellow bookclub member. Don died on April 23, 2022, after a courageous battle with Parkinson's. Don was a loyal member of our bookclub. He was loved and respected by everyone. His book selections always introduced the group to histories, especially WWII, spy mysteries and great fiction. Don was treasured member of the club. Our condolences go out to Sharon and the family. He will be sorely missed.
Don Wallace Brown was born in Houston, Texas, to George Nathan and Ruth Geneva Pope Brown. George was a salesman. Don's siblings were brother, George R. Brown and sister Bobbye Brown.
Ensign Don W. Brown and Sharon Ann Duecker were married on June 5, 1966, in the Gethsemane Luthern Church in San Antonio, TX.
Don served in the US Navy during the Vietnam War. He served on the USS Benner, a Chevalier class destroyer, which supported aircraft carrier operations. conducted search and rescue procedures for downed pilots in the Gulf of Tonkin, performed coastal surveillance and anti-submaring warfare exercises and supplied gunfire support for United States and South Vietamese troops.
Don graduated from the University of Texas and earned a PhD from the University of Wisconsin. He was a faculty member at the University of California-Riverside from 1971 to 1983. From 1982-1983 he was a visiting faculty member at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs. He joined the coordinating board in 1983 as program director in the university division. He served as deputy commissioner for the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board from 1988 to 1997 when he was appointed Commissioner at the age of 53. This position oversaw a staff of 270 and a budget of 267 million for 1998. Don left the board in 2004 to help the College for All Texans Foundation and other efforts to reach the goals of Closing the Gaps by 2015, the state’s higher education plan.
Don was an active member of the Congregational Church of Austin, UCC, serving on many committees and chairing the trustees. He was instrumental in overseeing the renovation of the educational wing of the church. Don was a excellent woodworker and contributed to many repairs at the church. Don also served on the board of Huston-Tillotson University.
Don and Sharon were avid tango dancers. They have two children, Gregory Brown, a physician and Andy Brown, Travis County Judge.
Don Wallace Brown Obituary, Austin American Statesman May 7, 2022
Don was born in Houston, Texas, October 19, 1943, to George Nathan Brown and Ruth Geneva Pope Brown. His father, after years of illness, died of tuberculosis when Don was twenty; Don was devoted to his mother and maintained a strong and mutually supporting relationship with her throughout her life. Her caring hand helped to guide his development as a loving husband and father.
As a teen, he developed skills as a ham radio operator and collected postcards from around the world, demonstrating his facility on the Morse key. He joined the high school band, playing the tuba, the latter practice continuing through his time teaching in California. The Tivy band was the state AAA champion band his year. He found fame in the local paper several times in his late teens, as a DeMolay, for learning x-ray techniques at the VA, for his ham radio use, and as president of the National Honor Society at Tivy High School. He also traveled with his high school class to Monterey, Mexico, where he began learning Spanish.
After graduating from Tivy in 1961, he attended the University of Texas at Austin and joined the Naval ROTC; it was during this time that he met his wife-to-be, Sharon Ann Duecker, a University of Texas student and “Navy Sweetheart” from San Antonio.
Don graduated in 1965 and began his Naval service at that time, deploying to the Pacific from Long Beach, California. When Sharon graduated from UT a year later, they were married in San Antonio on June 5, 1966. Immediately afterward they moved to Long Beach so that he might complete his duties to the US Navy, and he shipped out, again aboard the USS Benner.
His time on the USS Benner was during the Vietnam War. Among other things, he operated the ship’s DASH—Drone Anti-Submarine Helicopter— that took pictures off the coast of Viet Nam. He told stories of the difficulty of landing the drone on the ship during storms. He spoke fondly of the friendships he built in Japan during time spent off duty.
After Don received an honorable discharge as LTJG from the Navy, they moved to Madison, Wisconsin. Don received a PhD in Political Science at the University of Wisconsin, and Sharon worked in administration at the University. They also adopted a cat named Alexis who would follow them for the next 20 years through three residences. It was here that their first son, Gregory, was born.
They all, including the cat, moved back to Southern California where Don taught political science at the University of California at Riverside. Their second son, Andrew, was born there. Both boys have fond memories of riding bikes with Don through the orange groves of the Inland Empire, and playing tennis with wooden rackets. It was around this time that Don gave up the tuba, instead letting loose with spontaneous acapella serenades to his frequently amazed family. Don and Sharon hosted meetings of Amnesty International in their living room, where the group would write letters to foreign governments on behalf of prisoners of conscience held unjustly in prisons around the world.
After about 10 years in California, during which time they spent many summer vacations visiting Texas and points in between due to the increasing smog in Riverside, they returned to the clear skies of central Texas; Don drove a Ryder truck with Greg, while Sharon, Andrew and the cat followed in the car.
Don taught in the Government Department at UT Austin, as well as the LBJ School of Public Affairs, before joining the staff of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. He became the Deputy Commissioner under Commissioner Ken Ashworth, and, upon Ken’s retirement, was appointed the Texas Commissioner of Higher Education. He served in that role until his “retirement” at age 62. With the assistance of State Senator John Montford, his friend from the Naval ROTC at UT, he formed the College For All Texans Foundation and continued his work to close the gap between the Texas population demographics and the demographics of students enrolled in Texas colleges and universities.
In retirement, he served on the Huston-Tillotson University board of Trustees, as board chair for several years. He and Sharon traveled to many beautiful places. In Argentina they honed their skills as Tangueros, visiting Buenos Aires on two trips. He and Sharon became regulars at Esquina Tango in Austin, where they loved to dance tango and attend milongas.
During 20-plus years as members of the Congregational Church of Austin, Don and Sharon served on many committees and Don oversaw the renovation of a significant portion of the old church building.
He began to suffer from a neuromuscular degenerative disease similar to Parkinson’s in 2016; it was complications related to this that finally led to his passing.
He was a loving father, always a positive role model to Greg and Andrew, able to teach his sons on most subjects, from mathematics to plumbing to caring for the world around them. He encouraged both of his boys to join the Boy Scouts to develop skills and camaraderie, and the family went on many camping trips together over the years. Camping trips with dad, and sometimes his friend Gary Freeman too, continued into adulthood for Greg and Andrew.
His fine carpentry was quite stunning, and he finished his final projects just before his degenerative disease showed itself clearly: beautifully handcrafted bedside tables, a display table, and an end table still grace the three family households today, as well as earlier work such as the secretary with leaded glass cabinets that he made for Sharon years earlier.
Don is survived by his wife of fifty-six years Sharon, son Gregory, son Andy and his wife Sara, and grandchildren, Hattie and Franklin. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to Huston Tillotson University’s scholarship fund at the following link: https://htu.edu/ram-annual-fund
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