Robert Springer Brown

The coolest guy I ever knew passed away on September 5, 2023. He was my dad.

Robert Springer Brown (Bob, or Dad to me) was born March 18, 1932 in Durango, Colorado. His father, Robert Moore Brown, was born July 11, 1904 in Silverton, Colorado. His mother, Ethyl Myrtle (Bendure) Brown, was born August 17, 1904 in Chama, New Mexico (when NM was still a territory). Dad’s father had two older siblings; Carolyn “Carrie” (Brown) Bay and Albert Leland Brown, Jr.

– their parents (Dad’s grandparents) were Albert Leland Brown and Olive May “Marie” (Springer) Brown, married January 17, 1900 in Silverton.

His mother had four older siblings; Hazel Valentine (Bendure) Johnson, Gladys Berta (Bendure) Pfeiffer, Zelma Gretchen (Bendure) Brown (married to Jack Brown, no relation to these Browns), & Stephen Arnold Bendure – their parents (Dad’s other grandparents) were Bert Elmer Bendure & Cora Ann (Tucker) Bendure, married October 16, 1892 in Little River, Kansas.

Dad’s father was a railroad man, so Dad lived all over the United States while growing up, going to 22 public schools between kindergarten and 12th grade. Dad graduated from High School in Fort Worth, Texas in 1950. Then Dad went on to the University of Arizona where he got his sheepskin in Business Administration in 1954. While at the U of A, he played baseball on a baseball scholarship, and was a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity. In addition, Dad was also in the ROTC at the U of A. After graduation he went into the United States Air Force and was stationed at Beale Air Force Base in Marysville, California, where he met and married my mother, and where I was born.

After leaving the Air Force, Dad worked in the insurance industry insuring the growers in the Salinas Valley, including Monterey, Castroville, Watsonville, etc., outside of the San Francisco Bay Area.

During that time, Dad (and Mom) were also into the political scene, and Dad was one of Ronald Reagan’s campaign managers when Reagan was elected Governor of California in 1966.

Sometime in 1968, Dad moved us to the Durango area (Hesperus, Colorado, 11 miles west), where he grew up. There he went to work in his father’s and great aunt’s (Zelma Bendure) coal mine – Hesperus Coal Co. Pretty soon he found a job in Silverton as office manager for the Dixielynn Corporation, which operated several hard-rock mines in the Silverton area, and off to Silverton we moved (summer 1971). We lived in Howardsville the first year and a half and moved into town after that. When Dixielynn closed up shop Dad went to work for Standard Metals, who, at the time (early 1970s), operated the American Tunnel/Sunnyside Mine/ Gold King Mine. Meanwhile, Mom tended bar at the Grand Imperial Hotel, and both Mom and Dad worked the other side of the bar (along with all their friends) at the San Juan Bar Café & Melodrama Theater.

I was the designated driver, back in those days. I was about 13 or 14 then.

During our time in Silverton, Dad and Mom divorced (late 1972). Mom moved back to California and Dad and I stayed in Silverton living above the Hardware Store (now Adelaide’s Antiques, I believe). On one of our trips to Durango, Dad met Alice Schroeder at a square dance.

They hit it off pretty well and spent the next 50 or so years together, until Dad’s death.

Dad and Alice eventually tied the knot in 1982 when they were married at the Fort Lewis College Chapel that overlooks downtown Durango.

Dad worked underground in Silverton until sometime in 1976 when he went full-time with a coal and oil outfit out of Colorado Springs – Perma Resources (formerly Calder and Co.). He bought some interest in the company and worked as their office manager until 1983 when the coal and oil business in the USA took a sharp downturn. He went back into the insurance business in the Phoenix, Arizona area (Glendale, Arizona) insuring the growers in that region. I think he did most of his business on the golf course there. Not a bad way to earn a living, eh? LOL He loved it!

From Phoenix, Dad and Alice moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico (year 2000 timeframe) where he continued in the insurance business of insuring growers of produce.

They lived and worked there for several years and then moved to Windsor, Colorado (next to Loveland, Colorado) near Alice’s two daughters, Michele and Shannon (and their respective spouses Greg Van Hare and Mike Fanning), who all reside in Loveland.

In Windsor, Dad worked part-time for an H&R Block office doing taxes for people (he loved doing that) until his eyes deteriorated (due to macular degeneration) to the point he could no longer see/ read well enough to assist people in their tax returns.

He was about 85 at that point (2017 timeframe). Dad would have continued working until his last days if not for that macular degeneration. He loved “going into the office”.

Dad is survived by his wife, Alice; by me (his son) Robert Springer Brown, Jr. (Scooter) & wife Jill; Alice’s daughters Michele & her husband Greg Van Hare, and Shannon & her husband Mike Fanning; his first wife, Kay Rhodes Allen (my mother); niece Kim (Schwalbe) Long; and nephew Gary Nathan Schwalbe.

He is also survived by the following grandkids, who called him Big Bob and/or Grand Bob – Scooter’s kids: Timothy Alan (TJ) Brown, Brandon Lee Brown, Keenan Coltharp Brown (wife Meghan), & Caitlin Marie (Katie) Brown; Jill’s kids: Madison Sydney Dundon (husband Will), Alexandria Caroline Farmer, & Meredith Colleen Farmer; Michele and Greg’s kids: Jason Van Hare (wife Grace), and Sarah Van Hare; Shannon and Mike’s kids: Alison Fanning, Elizabeth (Lizzy) Fanning, and Cass Fanning.

And, survived by the following great grandkids – Brandon’s boys: Jayce and Jacob; Meghan and Keenan’s boys: Benton and Baylor; Grace and Jason’s daughter: Magdalena Dad was preceded in death by both of his parents; his son, Charles Tucker Brown, who died of leukemia in March 1964 (4 years old); his sister, Cheryl (Brown) Schwalbe; his brother-in-law Armand Wayne Schwalbe; his niece Sandra Elaine Schwalbe; great granddaughters Abigaile Holland Brown and Annabelle Marie Brown (grandson Brandon’s first two children); and daughter- in-law Charlotte Lynn Brown (mother of Scooter’s kids, and grandmother of Brandon’s kids & Keenan’s kids).

I really miss you, Pop. I miss hearing your voice every day on the phone. You were one cool dude.