Richard C. Brown passed away at Tacoma General Hospital on Nov. 2, 2015, where he had been born 88 years earlier, as the fifth and last child to Harry and Alpharetta Brown (the original candy maker and founder of Brown & Haley Candy) on Aug. 18, 1927.
He is survived by his beloved wife of over 65 years, Joan (Colman), whom he met at Stadium High School, and who resides at Tobey Jones in Tacoma.
Dick’s life was marked with a strong character of integrity, service and especially a love for family, which included his three sons and their spouses, Jim and Becky of Tacoma, Jeff and Alicia of Winthrop, and Paul and Janice of Seattle; along with six grandchildren, six great-grandchildren and a seventh to arrive in February.
After graduating from Stadium, where he excelled in sports of every kind, he went on to serve in the U.S. Army, and graduated from the University of Puget Sound in 1950 where he was honored as a “Little All American” in football. He was inducted into the UPS Athletic Hall of Fame in 1967 and the Tacoma-Pierce County Sports Hall of Fame in 2005 for his outstanding sports career in football and basketball at both Stadium and UPS. It was said that “Brown was considered one of the best football-basketball athletes ever to wear the Logger (UPS) uniform.” He was proud to have summited Mt. Rainier and also to have been one of the creators of the game of pickleball with a group of friends on Bainbridge Island.
Dick was vice president of Rogers Candy Co. in Seattle for many years before moving to the Methow and beginning Winthrop Realty. He followed in his father’s footsteps as a trustee of the University of Puget Sound for 33 years, was active in a variety of community service organizations all of his life, and had a special heart for education from the pre-school level (Little Star Montessori School in Winthrop) to the university level (University of Puget Sound.)
A memorial service will be held at University Place Presbyterian Church in Tacoma on Friday (Nov. 13) at 2 pm. A celebration of Dick’s life will be held in Winthrop in the spring of 2016.
