Memorial Service Tomorrow for Bill Brown: be there in person or in spirit !

[jimmy]

Saturday August 6 Celebration of the Life of Bill Brown, Gustavus AK.  You are invited, in person or in spirit.

This all-hands invitation popped on Facebook today from former Ranger and author Kim Heacock, who lives in Gustavus :

Kim Heacox

18 hrs ·

Join us in person or in spirit this coming Saturday, August 6, from 3 to 9pm at Carolyn Elder's house in Gustavus

as we celebrate William E. "Wild Bill" Brown: a life dedicated to family, community and safeguarding what remains of open space and pristine land, especially here in Alaska.

THE ABOVE WAS PASTED TO THIS MAY DEATH NOTICE FROM KIM:

Kim Heacox

May 2 ·

Yesterday this beautiful world said goodbye to one of its great defenders, William E. (Wild Bill) Brown (1930-2016), a wonderful man and eloquent historian who ...touched many lives in countless ways. He helped establish new national parks in Alaska (how many people can say that?), befriended congressmen and first ladies, wrote compelling books on pristine places and subsistence peoples, and gave many unforgettable talks peppered with wit and a sweeping vocabulary… words like “imponderable” and “ineluctable.”

 

He’d quote Roman emperors and Greek philosophers while watching NFL football.

 

“Be critical thinkers,” he once told the graduating high school class in the little town of Gustavus (next to Glacier Bay Nat'l Park, where he and his wife Carolyn Elder raised their sons Danny and Zach).

 

Like Teddy Roosevelt, Bill didn’t suffer fools. He warmly celebrated love and beauty, as pictured here, speaking at the wedding of Paul Barnes and Melissa Senac (Melissa pictured behind Bill with wedding commissioner John “Sid” Sidwell) at the Hobbit Hole, in the Inian Islands, in Icy Strait, 2009. Thank you, Bill, for you courage and mentorship, for your big heart and good humor.

 

You will be missed but never forgotten.

 

THIS REMINDED ME OF THE MANY TIMES HE LIFTED ME UP: in particular a few years ago when I was in despair over how the language in the Alaska Lands Act (ANILCA) got twisted, fretting about if we should have done better, he gave just the right perspective and warmth.

 

So today along with many others posting, I jotted this down for Kim, for Bill, for tomorrow:

 

 

JR Pepper Maybe, read something by Yeats, or Dylan Thomas. 

 For this photo, Kim, you posted of Bill in May, taken in 2009, he told me that August a day or two before the wedding, he was going to read Yeats' "Brown Penny," was excited about it and its multiple meanings. Last time I heard from Bill. 

 I appreciate you all saying good bye. I will be there, in spirit. A good friend who lifted me and my life beyond my counting. Always, just when I needed it. Safe trails old friend.