Arthur Adair Brown

Art Brown, 86, died peacefully in Silverton on July 28, 2025. Art was born to Dorothy (Polis) and Arthur Brown of Grettinger, Iowa, at his aunt Eunice’s home in Maquoketa, Iowa, on Aug. 2, 1938. Art is survived by his wife of 41 years, Virginia, of Silverton; his sister, Kay Lou; and his children, James, Bridget, and Brendan, all of Washington state. Art leaves four grandchildren, Ayla, Andrew, Derek a nd Kirstin, and six great-grandchildren.

When Art was approximately seven years old he contracted bulbar polio: he was hospitalized for nine months, and it is reported that he was one of few children to survive that type of polio. He was athletic in high school and participated in a variety of sports including wrestling, baseball and football. He grew up loving the out-of-doors, hiking, camping, canoeing and kayaking. He enjoyed woodworking, photography and art, and worked to restore his 1922 Silverton home to its original old-growth fir glory.

Art graduated from Casa Grande High School in Arizona in 1957 and went on to receive a BA degree in Art and Industrial Arts at Arizona State University, followed by his first Master’s Degree (in Special Education) in 1963. He and first wife Patti moved to the Navajo Reservation where he taught Navajo children for the next nine-and-a-half years. After they left the Navajo Nation, Art continued to teach. In Elko, Nevada, he became head of a home for children with intellectual disabilities and started a thrift store there to help support the program.

In 1984, Art married Virginia (Averill) and they both obtained Master’s Degrees in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). Virginia was selected to teach at Shanghai International Studies University on a faculty exchange in 1989. Art joined her in June just before the Beijing Tiananmen Square violence. Even though universities were closing and students were being sent home by the government, Art and Virginia were among very few foreigners who remained in China. They backpacked by river boat and country buses (sometimes with broken windows and broken floor boards) throughout southern China for three months seeing very few other foreigners, meeting Chinese of many different ethnic groups, staying in a Dai home on stilts and traveling the Mekong River in southern China with Beijing art students.

Upon returning from China, they went to Casa Grande, Arizona, to teach and look after Virginia’s mother. In 1990, they both joined the Peace Corps and served for three years in Poland, helping to open Teacher Training Colleges throughout the country to supply Poland with English teachers after the Berlin wall and the Soviet Union fell. They helped change the Polish regulations and made it possible for a teacher with a wheelchair to teach in Poland!

After the Peace Corps, Art taught international students at Linfield University in McMinnville, Oregon, and later accepted a job as Case Manager at Lord High School/MacLaren Correctional Facility in Woodburn where he remained until retirement in 2010.

Art was blessed with four exchange students during his life in Silverton. Gulshan, a delightful “daughter,” from Uzbekistan; Minh from Vietnam became a third “son;” Felipe from Brazil; and lovely Hyewon from South Korea. All are still in touch.

Upon retirement, Art and Virginia drove to Minnesota and bought a 13-foot Scamp trailer and, with their dog, camped, canoed and kayaked in Oregon, Washington and Montana, including a long road trip through Alaska, Canada and Idaho (gaining life-changing knowledge of cultures and environment). After Art’s stroke in 2014, they began to travel via Viking Cruises, visiting destinations in Europe, Canada, and a fascinating trip 1,000 miles up the Amazon. In 2022, Art’s heart attack interfered with a planned trip to Argentina, around Cape Horn and Chile. In 2023, after more heart issues, Art moved into Assisted Living at Davenport Place in Silverton, only a few blocks from his home. His wife, Virginia, and beloved dog, Henny, were able to visit every day; they could eat together and go places together with a wheelchair.

While still in Arizona, Art became a member of the Baha’i Faith. In Silverton, he joined Silverton People for Peace and helped build the giant Peace Dove in his backyard 20+ years ago. Art was the first to carry the Dove in the Homer Davenport Parade. Later on, he became active in Silverton Progressives working for better government.

A Celebration of Life/Memorial will be held on Saturday, September 20, from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Silverton 50+ Center at 115 Westfield Street. Come and share your thoughts and stories. Donations can be made to your favorite charity, Doctors Without Borders, St. Jude, Save the Children, or any scholarships for young people.