Raymond Brown Jr.

Family-Placed Death Notice

BROWN, Raymond, Jr. RAYMOND MELVIN BROWN JR. Raymond Brown Jr., 85, of Roswell, Georgia died January 26, 2012 after an extended illness. He was a resident of St. George Village Community along with his wife, Leah. Born in Oakland, California, he attended Oakland High and St. Paul's School for Boys in Baltimore, Maryland. During wartime, he enlisted in the Navy's V-12 program while attending Mount St. Mary's and Villanova colleges. After the war, Ray received his BA in Architecture from UC Berkeley, where he was a member of Phi Kappa Psi. "Blue Eyes" married his college sweetheart, Leah Wharton, a University of Pennsylvania graduate, in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, and brought her to Oakland, California. They started their family with Catharine's birth in 1949 and David's in 1951. The family attended Bethel Presbyterian Church in San Leandro, where Ray was an elder, choir member and Sunday school teacher. Ray started his career running his father's trucking company with his friend and eventual brother-in-law, Harry Franceschi. After a few years, he became a marketing director at Consolidated Freightways. Ray eventually joined the IBM Corporation, where he worked 22 years as a transportation industry marketer, with stints in Oakland, San Francisco, Princeton, NJ, White Plains, NY, and finally in Atlanta, GA, starting in 1974. He was awarded the coveted "President's Award" at IBM and retired in 1988. In retirement, he enjoyed substitute teaching in North Atlanta schools, as well as delivering cars with the happy "drovers," those silver-haired retirees at Enterprise Car Rental. Most of all, he enjoyed his grandchildren, gardening, building and flying model airplanes, piano playing (both solo and accompanying the talented St. George Villagers), and going out to dinner with his life companion of 64 years, Leah. He is survived by his wife, children: Catharine Monet (Richard) of Woodstock, GA, David Brown (Eva) of Sonoma, CA, and grandchildren Russell Youmans (US Army), Christina Hamlin (Damien), and Paul Brown and his not-so-little brother, Jack. He is also survived by his sister, Diana Franceschi (Harry) of Modesto, California. A memorial service will be held on Saturday, February 4th at 7:00 PM at St. George Community Village Auditorium in Roswell, Georgia. The Reverend Ted Lester, P.C.A., officiating. In lieu of flowers, please make donations in his memory to the Employee Fund of St. George Community Village, 11350 Woodstock Rd. Roswell, GA 30075. Arrangements by Northside Chapel Funeral Directors, Roswell, 770-645-1414 www.northsidechapel.com