Obituary of Richard Brown, Jr.

Richard H. Brown Jr. (1927-2020)

Richard (Dick) Brown was born on June 29, 1927 in a house in Valley Stream, NY.  He was the son of Richard and Anna Brown, and the second of what would be four brothers.  He was raised in Valley Stream and (during summers) in the bayside community of Jamesport on Long Island’s North Fork.  Summers in Jamesport imbued him with a love of things nautical, which would continue throughout his life.  While young, he and his three brothers spent many a day simply messing about in boats on Long Island’s Peconic Bays. 

He graduated from Valley Stream Central high school in 1944, where he excelled at school and was a wrestler.  With a war on, he enrolled in the Navy’s V-12 officer training program, and attended Middlebury College and Brown University.  After the war ended and he was discharged from the Navy, Dick completed undergraduate studies at Cornell University in 1948.  From there, it was off to New York University law school because (as he noted later), he could not think of anything else to do. (His father was a lawyer). Dick finished law school in 1951 and passed the bar exam that year even though he knew he was headed back into the Navy due to the Korean conflict.  He served as an officer on a destroyer that saw service off the Korean peninsula, and told some characteristically funny stories about interactions between the ship’s overbearing captain and its sometimes hapless crew. 

After leaving the Navy, Dick began practicing maritime law in New York City in 1955, and ultimately came to specialize in cases involving ship mishaps (mostly collisions).  He practiced maritime law for over 50 years; for many years, he was a partner at Kirlin, Campbell & Keating, held leadership positions in the Maritime Law Association, and until very recently was still serving on the board of directors of the American Club, a maritime insurance association. 

In 1956, he married Joan Bossler; they had and raised four children (Richard, Alison, Robert, and Katie) in Rockville Centre, where he lived for the rest of his life.  As a busy (and often traveling) lawyer, he was less involved than Joan in the day-to-day parenting.  He did take great interest in his children’s schoolwork; he was always there for them in the rough patches, and there was no doubt of his love for his family.  He conveyed his fondness for the North Fork of Long Island to his children.  It was when he took vacations out there as a hardworking father with a young family that he visibly relaxed and enjoyed himself.

Joan became chronically ill at a relatively young age, and his tireless care of her during her affliction while continuing work at a demanding job was the epitome of love and devotion.  Characteristic of those of his generation, he did all of that without complaint or any sign of self-pity. 

Joan died in 1990, and at about that time, he remarked to one of his children in a matter-of-fact way that he was “getting to the end of the trail.”  But he was wrong.  He got re-married to Dr. Gail Malloy, also of Rockville Centre.  They shared 27 years together, enjoying travel, grandchildren, and his beloved Jamesport (often with his brothers).  While there, he continued to sail and enjoyed good meals with family and friends, often at a local (and, sadly, now-gone) restaurant, Country Kitchen. 

Dick was an intelligent, serious, generous, and kind man.  He was extremely well-read, and exuded a quiet authority on many topics.  He greatly enjoyed the ability to travel with Gail after retirement, and would move heaven and earth to attend a graduation of one of his grandchildren.  He had a terrific sense of humor, and could just as easily laugh at himself as at others.  He lived a long and full life, and his presence enriched the lives of many. 

Until his death, he was an active member of the Episcopal Church in Rockville Centre, where he must have been one of its longest-serving ushers.  In recent years, he greatly missed his three brothers, all of whom predeceased him.  It is our fervent hope that they and other loved ones that have gone before him are saying to Dick (pace R.L. Stevenson):  “Home is the sailor, home from the sea.”

For those interested in making a contribution in the memory of Dick, the family asks that you make a contribution to an organization of your own choosing.