My father died unexpectedly the night before last. He was a salty, misunderstood man with a heart of gold. He fiercely protected the vulnerable, tolerated no bullshit, and took no prisoners. He was the kind of officer who arrested other cops for using confiscated drugs. People either deeply respected and admired him or hated him. If you hated him, odds were you were up to no good or you already did something he got you for.
He was a man who picked up stray dogs who’d been hit by a car and drove them to a vet to get their wounds treated. If he didn’t have his car and he was walking and saw an injured animal, he would carry that animal in his arms to the vet. In his lifetime, he rescued and re-homed over 350 dogs that would’ve died miserably in the South Texas desert.
Dad paid out of his own pocket for other veterans’ medical care and didn’t need a hero’s song written about him for it. He started the Emergency Medical Services in Huntsville, TX in the 1970s and hired the first female, Black, and Mexican crew, because he knew that not hiring good people based on prejudice was just ignorance.
Dad worked to minimize harm, not cause it. He didn’t give a damn what anybody thought about him.
If there are any parts of me that resemble my dad, I consider that a family heirloom.
Dad, you were and are my Falkor in human form. I love you and will see you across the veil. Christy and many precious dogs you rescued are already there, waiting to surround you with love.
To Daniel Mark Brown
May 7, 1950 - July 22, 2025
Sunni I am gutted by the passing of your father and I am so sorry that we lost such a great man.
Here is my post about him…it says it all.
Dan Brown…..the world lost a curmudgeonly old man when you left us today….a curmudgeonly old man that I loved with my whole heart! Just last week I had a quick text from him and I was sure to tell him once again that I loved him….i know he knew but I am so glad I was able to remind him.
I met Dan in the late 1970s… our relationship spanned 50 years!. He was my boss at one of my first jobs. Even after he left the area, we kept in touch. I would get a call from him or a visit if he was in town. We would visit over dinner and Dan ALWAYS reminded me I could do great things if I remembered there was a world outside of Huntsville TX.
When Dan left to take a job in El Paso I was upset to see him go. He called me a few months later and said…”out of all the people I thought I would miss when I left Huntsville, you weren’t even on the list….but I miss you!”
He went on to ask me if I would move to El Paso to come to work for him. I didn’t go but we kept in touch.
After the early eighties we lost touch.
Somewhere after 1995, I mentioned to JC that I really wished I knew how to locate MY Dan Brown but that with his common name I had no luck finding him. JC said, “ there’s a guy who works across the hall from me and has been there about five years and his name is Dan Brown, but it couldn’t possibly be the same one. I asked him what that person did as far as his job, he replied that he worked in medical records. I immediately asked him….
“ is he tall and very slender, mostly quiet, but definitely tells people to go
F themselves on a daily basis?” J C said…”yep! I bet it’s him!” JC called me the next morning from work and told me to be over at the prison unit by noon so that I could see my Dan Brown! Since then I have kept in touch with him.
Dan Brown …….thank you SO MUCH for seeing in me what I could not see and pushing me to push myself! Thank you for the worldliness and the experiences you taught me. I don’t know that I would ever have tried escargot if it hadn’t been for you. And by the way, every single time I saw Julia Roberts send that escargot sailing across the room in Pretty Woman I thought of you. You not only took this country bumpkin out for a sophisticated dress up dinner, you showed me the correct way to hold those Slippery suckers so that MY escargot didn’t go flying across the room! You took time to show me things that built my confidence and had so much to do with the woman I am today!
I am going to miss you like crazy and I hope there is someone in heaven that can make you oatmeal cookies just as good as mine. I love you and I will see you when I get there!💜
Beautiful tribute, Sunni. Grief makes love all the more clear. May his saltiness continue to live through you.