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Sam Darby
Welcome to a new year of Andover Crew. Please fell free to leave public messages,questions and comments here. Please remember this is a pubic area.
Sam
Racing starts today April 9th. Andover vs Essex on the Merrimack
Andovercrew
Countdown to racing.... a few more days and we will be welcoming the rowers to the Merrimack for another racing season. Go Blue!
Andover Crew
Happy New Year! The year of the Rabbit.
Email: ffherron [at] gmail [dot] com
Frank Herron, PA 1970
Coach Brown was absolutely memorable--both in style and substance. Losing the shell off the top of the station wagon on the long drive home from Kent in the spring of 1970 has to be the most memorable moment. I was in the backward-facing seat in the rear of the car as we whizzed toward home. Suddenly, we heard a "whoosh." The shell actually seemed to float away from the rooftop before crashing to the ground. I swear it hovered. We scrambled to recover the splintered hulk in the middle of the Interstate (somewhere west of Hartford, I think), trying--in the gloaming--to find as many varnished shards as possible. We took a small detour and dropped the mess off at Joseph Garofalo's shop (Worcester Oar and Paddle) in my home town, under cover of night. Joseph G. was long gone from the shop, according my recollection. I remember wondering what he would think when he arrived at work the next morning and beheld our handiwork. I think Coach Brown was driving when we lost the shell. His controlled, somewhat droll reaction to this disaster was remarkable. He might have puffed a little harder on the pipe. But I recall no fury. I recall no sputtered oaths. I recall no pointed fingers. Not sure whose knot slipped.....
Andover Crew
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! 
Charlie Dean '79
This email posted here with kind permission from Charlie Dean '79.
Sam: thank you for sharing this sad news. I was amazed at how spry Mr. Brown looked at lunch a week and a half ago, and am stunned that he is gone so soon afterwards. I know that we’ll all treasure having talked to him and shared a meal with him just before his final launch.
After I got home, I sent Mr. Brown an email with the following words. I’ll never know if he received it.
Mr. Brown: it was a great pleasure to join you and fellow PA rowers in Bath this past Sunday. Congratulations for making the Andover Athletic Hall of Fame, which you rightly deserve! Thanks too for starting Andover's rowing program in the 1950s and getting kids like us involved in such a great sport.
If I may, I would like to say a couple things sir. Firstly, you played a significant part in my four year experience at Andover. Not only did you try to teach me proper English in my Junior year, but you were my house counselor in Pease my Lower year, and my crew coach my Upper and Senior years. No other one member of the faculty had such a continuous impact on my development. You also shared with me snippets of your past, which I have treasured, to include your memories of seeing Adolph Hitler in a parade when you visited Germany in the late 1930s [note 1], and your being at the Remagen Bridge and cutting off the local phone service, ending artillery fire on your unit [note 2]. When I think of Andover, I think of Mr. Bill Brown, your wife, and your Corgis. You were to me everything good and hard about Andover. The good part being that you cared about us considerably. The hard part being that you worked us in class and I was always on edge, always wanting to do better but always getting a critical and honest review from you of my work.
Note 1: At the end of his college years at Harvard, Bill Brown visited Europe, including Germany. He told me about being up in a building, perhaps a hotel, and looking down at a Nazi parade and seeing Hitler passing by in a car. Mr. Brown wondered aloud what might have happened in history had he taken action that one?
Note 2: Bill Brown left Andover and joined the US Army as a Signal Corps officer. He served in the European Theater of Operations and participated in the assault on the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen in Germany. This roadway bridge across the Rhine River at Remagen was the first major bridge that Allied forces captured intact over the Rhine. Seizure of the bridge on 7 Mar 44, was highly contested and the German defenders tried to detonate charges to drop the bridge. The bridge succumbed to damage and collapsed several days later. At the time of the assault, General Eisenhower stated, “the bridge is worth its weight in gold.”
Charlie Dean
PA ‘79
Lt Col, US Army (Ret)
Jane Pugh Perrett
This is an email posted here with kind permission from Jane Pugh Perret '73.
I have been reading all this as well. I remember watching all of you row because Duke Burnham was my beau at the time. One day Mr. Brown asked me to cox a shell. By the time the stroke had repeated Mr. Brown’s words that I couldn’t hear, the massive log about which he had spoken passed by us safely. Had it hit us; we all would have been in the drink. Mr. Brown never said another word about it but I was not asked to cox again. He did let me start the first women’s boat though. I think grudgingly at first. Dick Cashin’s sister Jane rowed with us and went on to row at Penn and then in the Olympics. Jane had the height to row. But it was Mr. Brown relinquishing male hold on the boat house that started that into motion. It seemed like it was a huge step for him and he still made it. That spoke to his strength of character.
Up until my divorce I actually still had an old oar hanging. I bought it as some sort of fundraiser and had held onto it since graduation. But at some time you just have to morph into a grown up.
This has been a wonderful walk down memory lane.
Mat MacIver
This is an email posted here with kind permission from Mat MacIver '72.
Dear Sam,
Because of home email issues, it was only this morning that I saw the headline to your email flashing by on the screen – I frankly couldn’t process it at first. Incredulity doesn’t adequately describe my reaction after having had such a warm reunion with Coach Brown two weeks ago.
For years I had wanted to thank Mr. Brown for the enormous positive influence he had on my life – not only by helping me build confidence and leadership skills on the river, but as a model of a man who always seemed to follow his better angels and always found an opportunity to help us do the same, non-judgmentally, with grace, humor or gravitas, as appropriate.
When I decided to make the trek to the Bath luncheon from Hingham, I made a rocket run first to our home on the Cape to retrieve some artifacts I’d saved over the years. One item was the Andover bulletin from Spring 72, featuring many pictures of our varsity victory on the Exeter River as Punch described in his email. As underdogs, we prevailed in the last 25 meters, forcing a crab in the Exeter boat, hammering over the line to a three second victory. Mr. Brown lit up when he saw the photo spread; then his eyes narrowed and he said “You know, they didn’t even think we should’ve been on the river with them.” Our mutual reminiscence of that day was truly a gift.
I learned a few things too – like Mr. Brown’s total disdain (scorn?) for Tabor. Much of this had to do with Henley in the prior decade but apparently the sting carried over for years. In our 1972 race with them I remember seeing their boat in “bucket rig” and being somewhat concerned – I’d never seen this - some secret weapon? Mr. Brown’s response: “Ah, it’s just a gimmick – ignore it.” My balloon of uncertainty and doubt instantly deflated – and of course we prevailed.
I won’t go on, but Mr. Brown also opened up opportunities for me in the English department that by rights I didn’t deserve. I’m still glad that my subsequent performance showed him proud.
I’m incredibly thankful to Sam and Chris for creating the circumstances for allowing me to show my gratitude to Coach Brown and I’m even more thankful that such a man was a part of my life. God bless him.
Mat MacIver ‘72
Lucy Danzinger
This is an email posted here with kind permission from Lucy Danzinger '78.
We should do something for him in the spring... Name something after him?
My son is rowing in the program (B1, very very intense) and what’s so amazing is it hasn’t changed (new boats and future boathouse notwithstanding) ... The values of teamwork, mutual respect and of course co-education (as a girl rower we never felt slighted or in any way “lesser” athletes in Mr Brown’s presence and on the bus, etc) and his personal strength of quiet leadership by example are very much intact there. In other words, he taught integrity and sportsmanship, teamwork and the importance of hardwork. I love the fact that these are values I cherish today!
Script by Dagon Design