Donald Eugene Brown

1928 - 2020

June 6, 1928 - July 10, 2020 Donald Eugene Brown died peacefully on July 10, 2020, at the age of 92. He was born in New York City on June 6, 1928, the fourth child of Robert W. Brown, Jr. and Edna Marie (Crawford) Brown. His family moved to Winston-Salem, N.C. where three more siblings were born. His family moved to Cleveland, O.H., where he graduated from East High School. He then attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, G.A., where he made many lifelong friends. While at Morehouse, he pledged Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, which was engaged in door to door voter registration, a perilous activity at the time. His fellow classmate, Martin Luther King, Jr., became synonymous with that drive. When he was forced to leave Morehouse due to lack of funds, Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, president of Morehouse, personally encouraged him to continue his education. He then attended Wayne University in Detroit, MI, , where his family had moved , until drafted into the Army when the Korean War broke out. After basic training, he was selected for training in Army Intelligence and, later, with top secret clearance, became responsible for classified documents. His Army unit was scheduled to ship out to Korea but went to Germany instead. After being discharged from the Army, he joined his family had moved to Los Angeles. He then attended UCLA and graduated in 1955.Upon graduation from college, he was hired as a social worker with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services, where he worked successfully, steadily earning promotions to supervisor and deputy district director. He worked hard, was highly respected, and was selected as district director of the South Central/ Watts district in May 1970. After several years, he became district director of the El Monte district and then the Pomona DPSS, where he remained until he retired.He married Evelyn Christine Diaz in 1973 and they started their family in Altadena. They moved to Claremont in 1978, where they lived for 35 years. In Claremont, he made friends with a group of tennis players and he enjoyed playing tennis with the ever growing group that played on various public courts for over 30 years. He and his wife moved to a retirement community in 2013 where he made many new friends while still playing tennis with his old friends. He is survived by his wife, Evelyn Diaz Brown, children Rachel Tobey Brown, Donald Julian Diaz Brown and Courtney Annalise Moore; grandchildren Kaiya Parlor, Imani Jonas Brown, Breanna Annalise Cruz (Erick), and Khori Kali Moore; and great-grandchildren Amara Annalise Cruz, Sarai Amani Cruz and Elijah Parlor. Memorial gifts may be given to the National Museum of African American History and Culture, of which he was a charter member.A Celebration of Life will be scheduled in the future.