Born in rural south GA in 1920, he was the son of a welder, and the eldest of six children. He grew up hard on those red dirt roads, never making it past the 8th grade in school, because he had to go to work to help the family. There were no lights in rural GA back then...no electricity. His mother cooked on an iron stove, and the family stayed warm during the winters bundled in front of fireplaces. No cars...no telephones...no technology of any kind.
But he had Drive. Ambition. And a Determination to Make Something of Himself.
Always an engineer at heart, he was fascinated by machinery, and recognized the potential to Invent a Better Mousetrap. Setting about to design a more efficient automobile engine, he came up with a design for the rotary engine, and submitted his drafts to the Ford Motor Co., knowing as he did that there was a flaw in the cooling system. Ford sent the papers back, stamped with approval, and told him they were very interested in speaking to him about his design...as soon as he worked out that flaw.
As luck would have it, that corresponded with the advent of WWII, and being of age, he enlisted in the Army, and rose in the ranks of the mighty 2nd Armored Division, working as General Patton's radio operator as a Tech Sgt., and earning a Bronze Star for his efforts in the field. During this time, a German (ironically enough) named Wankel, who happened to be an engineer with the ability to work out the flaw in the cooling system, got the jump on his idea....and thus the Mazda Rotary Engine was born.
Zoom. Zoom.
As his life progressed he married, had 3 children, lost his wife to a debilitating disease at an early age, and eventually remarried, gaining another child in the process. Always driven to learn more about the world around him, he put himself through college, and then law school. Eventually, he found himself on the cutting edge of the computer age, and immersed himself completely in learning to program, which led him down incredible paths in his later years.
A published poet, and a Freemason for most of his life, he had a wide range of interests...always Building, Designing, Creating the world around him. He loved great literature, great music, great art, great history, and he instilled this love in his children, playing a key part in shaping the lives of his grand...and even great grandchildren. And he loved....fiercely, completely, utterly, without limits, or judgements. His loyalty knew no bounds, and no matter how much you might disagree with him (and you would) , you could never deny that love. It oozed from every pore. This was a man you desperately wanted in your corner. In his later years, his interests turned heavily toward geneology, and it was critical to him that his progeny not lose sight of their roots. Family was everything.
His 87 years spanned those dirt roads of his youth to space-age technology, and he embraced every ounce of it with open arms. Change meant growth, and this was a man who never stopped growing.
The world is a much emptier place without him, and I miss him more than I can say. Every day, every moment, I miss his knowledge and wisdom. I never asked him a questio
n that he didn't have an answer for...even if that answer was "let's find out". He is the source of my genetic pool, and one of the main reasons I am who I am today. There are no words for me to describe how unbelievably proud and honored I am that of all the millions of people in the world, I was one of the lucky ones that got to call him Daddy.
n that he didn't have an answer for...even if that answer was "let's find out". He is the source of my genetic pool, and one of the main reasons I am who I am today. There are no words for me to describe how unbelievably proud and honored I am that of all the millions of people in the world, I was one of the lucky ones that got to call him Daddy. Birl Randolph Brown, Sr.
6/14/20-6/5/07
May he forever rest in peace.
There's a special place in Heaven for men like him and my Grandaddy.
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