Warren M Brown

Warren Mallison Brown, aged 92, went to be with his Lord on September 6, 2018, from the Bailey Family Center for Caring in St. Augustine, Florida. Warren was born August 10, 1926, to Royal Albert Brown and Ethel Louise Johnson Brown, joining his sister Enid Elizabeth, in San Diego, California, where he grew up and graduated from high school. After graduation, Warren served in the U.S. Army Air Corps in World War II as a truck dispatcher and driver based in Fürstenfeldbruck, Germany. On the day following the liberation of Dachau Concentration Camp in April 1946, nineteen-year-old Private First Class Warren M. Brown and other members of the trucking company were assigned to transport the remains of the camp’s prisoners for proper burial. This experience so moved him that, when he believed his daughters were old enough to understand, he took his family back to Dachau. After his honorable discharge, Warren returned home and used his benefits under the G.I. Bill to attend San Diego State University where he was a member of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves and Theta Chi Fraternity, while also working at a lumber company. Upon graduation in 1950 with a degree in Economics, Warren was commissioned a rifle platoon leader in the United States Marine Corps where he later received his wings as a naval aviator thus achieving his childhood dream of flying. In November 1953, Captain Brown, USMC, qualified for his naval aviator wings by executing successful aircraft carrier takeoffs and landings and married Sara Elizabeth Allison in Corpus Christi, Texas. After completing jet engine training, Warren and Sara moved to Opalocka, FL, where they welcomed their first daughter, Polly. Warren then spent a year in Okinawa and Japan, before his next assignment at Camp Pendleton, California, near his hometown of San Diego where their second daughter, Betsy, was born. In 1961, Warren joined the Federal Civil Service to work at Castle Air Force Base in Merced, California, which was the U.S. Strategic Air Command’s B-52 aircrew training center. While there, Warren began the Brown family annual camping trip to Yosemite National Park. During 1967-1968 the Brown family lived in Seville, Spain, while Warren was on assignment from U.S. Strategic Air Command. Because Warren and Sara believed in importance of learning the country’s culture, Warren procured a house for his family in the heart of Seville instead of the nearby Air Force base. In 1968, Warren moved his family back to California to join the U.S. aerospace program at Vandenberg Air Force Base on the Pacific Ocean near Lompoc. He worked on logistics for the Titan II missile system -- long-range missiles used to launch NASA’s Mercury and Gemini spacecraft that were stored in underground elevator shafts. All Titan II missile launches and operations tests were successful during Warren’s tenure at Vandenberg AFB. Warren’s next career move was in 1970 to Strategic Air Command Headquarters at Offutt Air Force Base in Bellevue (near Omaha), Nebraska. Warren worked to ensure the ongoing readiness to launch of our country’s intercontinental ballistic missiles. Warren later accepted a position with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Omaha. Nebraska was a big move for this California man and his family, but Warren and Sara ended up living in Nebraska until their daughters graduated college and were married. Empty-nesters, Warren and Sara were excited to move to Arlington, Virginia, for Warren to work for the Secretary of the Army at The Pentagon where he retired in late 1983. They began their retirement in Pine Bluff and Lake Hamilton in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and moved to the Allegro in St. Augustine in 2000. Sara passed away in October 2016. Warren was all about his family and his service to God and country. He was a humble, old-school gentleman with a dry sense of humor. Warren was a faithful member of the Church of Christ and served as a Deacon in Merced, CA, and as an Elder in Lompoc, CA; Bellevue, NE; Arlington, VA; Pine Bluff, AR; and here in St. Augustine, FL. In most of these locations, he also instituted and managed a pictorial directory system for the church membership. In addition to his parents and his beloved wife of 63 years, Warren was predeceased by his sister and her husband, Enid and Robert Officer, and his son-in-law Walter Faulk. Mourning his loss are daughters Polly Brown Petersen, Bellevue, Nebraska, and Betsy Brown Faulk, Summer Haven; son-in-law David A. Petersen, Bellevue, Nebraska; grandson Matthew Warren Engel, Ankeny, Iowa; granddaughters: Elizabeth Ann Jones, Sioux City, Iowa; Dr. Bailey Trump Slagle and her husband Zachary Slagle, Sandusky, Ohio; and Sara Ellen Petersen, Omaha, Nebraska. Survivors also include great-grandsons Kyle Warren Engel, Devin Jones, Alex Engel, and Andru Jones; great-granddaughters Alena Beckham and Morgan Engel; a niece Sharon Officer Adams; a nephew Robert S. Officer; and a great-great-granddaughter Monica Jones. A celebration of Warren’s life will be held at 11:00 a.m., Friday, September 14, 2018, at the Church of Christ, 2900 Lewis Speedway, St. Augustine, 32084, with Minister Robert Burkert officiating. Warren asked that, in lieu of flowers, you consider donating to the Building Fund of the St. Augustine Church of Christ. St. Johns Family Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Warren M Brown

August 10, 1926 - September 6, 2018