Stephen Duane Brown
1950
- 2003
Steve Brown, an accomplished
amateur musician, was active as a soloist and singer in male ensembles from his
teenage years until his death. A printer by trade, he actively supported music
activities in the community and the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
Steve was born and spent most
of his childhood in Roseburg, Oregon, one of two children of Farrell and Jeanne
Adamson Brown. He began singing in his hometown church choir at age nine and
sang as a soloist in the adult main building at the Oregon Conference Gladstone
Camp Meeting while still very young. He studied voice for two years while in
grade school and then was active as a soloist and as a member in a male quartet
and choral groups during his time at Milo Academy in southern Oregon.
Following his graduation from
MA in 1968 and marriage to Ida Joan Hagood the
following year, they moved to College Place, Washington, where he and his wife
purchased Standard Printing, a business in nearby Walla Walla, in the 1980s.
The Browns supported the local symphony and the music department at Walla Walla
College, now University, through contributions and favorable estimates for
their printing needs.
They also assisted in the
publishing needs of the International Adventist Musicians Association during
its first fifteen years. Additionally, beginning in 1995 they underwrote a
music scholarship at WWC that continued until the time of his death in 2003.
Brown continued to be active
as a musician, singing in choral groups and a male quartet in the Walla Walla
City Church for over thirty years. His last musical activity was participating
in a July 4th patriotic choral concert in which he sang the solo
part in the Battle Hymn of the Republic, the day before he suffered a
fatal heart attack.
The Browns had two daughters,
both of whom were active in music in grade school. One daughter, Diane,
continued to play clarinet in academy and college ensembles and the Walla Walla
Symphony.
ds/2012
Source:
Information provided by Ida Joan Hagood Brown
Schwarz; personal knowledge.