William ‘Skip’ Brown
- Published: January 19, 2017
William R. “Skip” Brown
Skip was born April 24, 1972, in Springfield. He was the son of Larry and Lisa Brown and grandson of Elaine Brown and late grandfather William H. “Bill” Brown, all of Yellow Springs. He was the brother of David Brown and his wife, Bobbi; Dawn Brown and Danylle Brown, all of Xenia. He was an amazing uncle to Amanda, Kayla and LizziBeth Brown. He is also survived by his Aunt Jackie, of Portland, Ore.; Uncles Curt and Chris, of Yellow Springs; his beloved cats, Ash, Simba and Tigger; and other extended family and friends.
Skip attended Yellow Springs High School. He was the owner of the Legendary Roofing Company and was the project manager and owner of the Bahnsen Gallery. Skip’s interests included his appreciation for art and collectibles, including his great-grandfather Axel Bahnsen’s work in photography. He was also developing a vast appreciation for nature, including the difference between weeds and flowers. His smile and “no worries” outlook will be missed by many.
A gathering of friends and family will be held on Friday, Jan. 20, 4–7 p.m., at Jackson Lytle and Lewis Funeral Home. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the funeral home to offset expenses. Condolences may be forwarded to the family by visiting http://www.jacksonlytle.com.
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Annie’s letter brings me back. I remember her dad well. The year was 1957 and I was taking some kind of mid-level French course from him. I’ve had an image of him stuck in my head all these years. He’s holding an outdoor class on the quadrangle between North and South Halls and the front of the Main Building. He’s sitting cross-legged on the grass, white-haired, slightly balding, a bit of a belly, wearing an open collar white dress shirt. No necktie, which was unusual for the time. There was always a lighted cigarette dangling from his lips, the ash growing longer and longer until it fell off the cigarette and dribbled down his shirt front. When he spoke, the cigarette wagged like a dog’s tail.
One day, in the middle of one of his classes, the subject somehow changed from Molière to college work projects in the 1930’s, before any of his students had been born. “You kids should have been here!” he said to us, with a mixture of nostalgia and enthusiasm, “It was the Great Depression. The college was broke. The professors were broke. The students were broke. When something needed to get fixed or built, we all pitched in and did it ourselves. You can’t imagine the spirit they had here. You kids missed it. You really should have been here.”
I think it might have been the following year that Herm and Mary went down to Mexico on vacation. Mary contracted some mysterious infection there and didn’t survive it. Herman from then on looked devastated every time I saw him during my remaining years at Antioch.
I also knew Linton Appleberry well, since I saw him every week down at the Yellow Springs News, which in those days job-printed the Antioch Record. (During various years of college I had various jobs editing and writing for the student paper.) For those who are too young to remember such contraptions, Linton ran the Linotype machine, a clacking, rattling device, gushing what were probably dangerous fumes from a pot of molten lead. It was used for setting body type and, smaller headlines.
When I came back to campus in the 1980s for my 25th reunion, I ran into Linton and Valeska. In the course of chatting, it turned out that she and the woman who is now my ex-wife had attended the same Manhattan private school (although at different times.) Small world!
In the 1950s I also became friendly with, Rick Appleberry, who worked at the paper. Last I heard, Rick was a periodontist somewhere in Michigan. Years later Linton shared a theory that Rick was good at dealing with mirror images of teeth, as all dentists must, because as a high school student he became accustomed to reading lead type, which is also a mirror image of what appears on paper.
Some of you readers missed all this? You never knew Herman? Or Linton? You were born too late? Oh my. You kids should have been here. You really should have been here.
I am not understanding what is going on in Yellow Springs these days.
Skip was such a young man and he was an asset to the community.
My stay in November was so short. I was going to meet with him.Axel had taken many family portraits of us four Schnurer’s after Marie Dervin passed away in Mexico in 1957 or 1958. We were going to meet. A very good friend of my late brother John Schnurer bought me a plane ticket. I had no way to turn it down. I had not been to Yellow Springs since 2006 when Paul and his wife of 40 some years (I think) Kiera Alan Chris Condon Raye and Greg Dewey Paula Cordell Conrad Zackary Dan and Carol Phibbs Gary Snyder I think Beth and Joel Crandall Neal and several of John Schnurer’s associates Paul Wagner and a few other people attended a small gathering to Celebrate his life at the Chapel by the Library.
We asked Corinne if we might use her Yard on Herman St. where Dad raised us after co-oping with the Thomas and Hotailing family while we looked for houses. All new to the old Yellow Springs as Professors Librarians and other avenues of employment.We were adjaycent to the Clark family and the triangle where we met up for trick or treat and were spoiled with Hot Dogs Smores and Cider.
I would guess we could call that the olden days.
The nearest crime at that time which made National News was a Murder in Tipp City.
It seems like at that time we gathered in groups not always of our own ages some older some younger. We never locked our Doors. Joe Holley would bring the dry cleaning in Charles Chips came around and the milkman would bring us glass bottles of milk it seems like from Young’s Dairy in glass bottles. And I remember Dad saying Don’t drink the cream off of the top of the bottle and that was a sign that it was yummy, so we did and it was.
Valeska had the Montersori School in the Vail and Liton Appleberry ran the linotype at the Yellow Springs News.
Mary Mullins The Schumachers all ad large families enriching the Village Prentice was sharing his photography skills and there was a darkroom at the Bushes house on Grinnell Circle. We called the Vail Schuberry Lane.
Clean Gene was spinning the Vinals by the Antioch Dining Hall.Kennedy hadnt been assisated then and we never locked our bikes The applebutter festival was in the fall.
Just what happened to Yellow Srings?
As I think back to the late fifties and sixties the biggest issue was cats in the Antioch dorms.
I would have to guess that we have come out of the Twilight Zone and
moved at the speed of The times.
Whillowby anyone?
Annie Schnurer