Clayton Lynn BROWN

Longtime former Hearst public school principal Clayton Lynn Brown of Waterloo, Ont. died April 10, 2002 at the A. R. Goudie Eventide Home in Kitchener just weeks before his 90th birthday. Born May 7, 1912 in Fordwich (north of Kitchener-Waterloo), he served with RCAF Intelligence during the Second World War, mostly in Newfoundland/Labrador and for a while in Quebec. He had earlier studied engineering at Queen's University before transferring to teacher's college in Stratford. Arriving in Mead, south of Hearst, after the war to teach, he moved to Hearst Public School, where he taught Grades 7-8 and was acting principal and then principal until his retirement in 1970 at age 57. He and wife Vera attended the July 1, 1972 ceremonial opening of the expanded, renamed Clayton Brown Public School. An avid NHL and local hockey fan and bridge player, ardent reader and follower of the stock market, and later a gardener and traveller, he was described as, quiet, kind and understanding. An active member of St. Paul's United Church and Branch 173 Hearst Legion, he was a Mason for 68 years, travelling regularlay to meetings in Kapuskasing with fellow Hearst members. He and future wife Vera (nee Morris) Helm met in 1968 through a mutual friend at the Kirkland Lake brokerage office, where both would go to view stock market quotations on display. In 1970, they married in Toronto and in 1979 moved to Waterloo. "He took a great personal interest in each child," former longtime Clayton School teacher and vice principal Katie Larouche, now of Trout Lake, recalls. "He almost felt like Hearst was his home, he was there so long," wife Vera said, adding that many students later thanked him for encouraging them to continue their education. As cost-saving measures for the then-public school board, which at that time received little in government grant monies, he for many years declined salary increases and would ask students to bring their own baseball equipment for school use, former longtime trustee Nick Stolz recalls. The Browns came to town for Hearst's 75th anniversary festivities in 1997 and several times for teachers' retirement parties. Predeceased by his brother Jack Brown of Hanover, Mr. Brown leaves his wife Vera, a sister Elva Cooper of Fordwich, and sister-in-law Kay Brown of Hanover. Rev. Dave Jagger is to officiate this Saturday's memorial service at 1:30 p.m. at Fordwich United Church, following a Masonic Order service. Interment will be at the Fordwich Cemetery.