Richard (Dick) Thomas Brown
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Richard Thomas Brown, 93, of Harrisonburg, died September 12, 2021, at Sentara RMH Medical Center, after a struggle with SARS-CoV-2.
He was born in Elliston, Virginia on February 8, 1928, one of seven children to the late Baxter Brown and Phoebe Hundley Brown. In addition to his parents, he was predeceased in death by his wife of 52 years, Gerrie Lawless Brown; sisters, Jane Brown Burrus, Virginia Brown, Nancy Brown Kimbro, and Patricia Brown Powell; and one brother, John Hundley Brown.
Dick graduated from Montvale High School in 1945 and entered the United States Marine Corps. He served as PFC from 1945 - 1946, and then enrolled at Washington & Lee University. Upon graduation from W & L in 1950, he continued his service as a Marine from 1948 - 1952, serving active duty in 1950 - 1951. After his military service, he entered pharmacy school at the Medical College of Virginia, and earned a B.S. in Pharmacy in 1955.
After graduation, he began his pharmacy career at Wampler's Pharmacy in Martinsville, VA, meeting Gerrie there in 1960. They were married in 1961 and moved to the Shenandoah Valley in 1962, settling in Elkton, VA, where he opened Brown's Pharmacy in May of that year. He expanded the business to open Parkview Pharmacy in 1976, and Harrisonburg Pharmacy in 1987, before retiring in 1997.
Dick was a former member of the Elkton Lions Club, a Master Mason with Lodge No. 74 A.F. & A.M., and a thirty-five-year member of the Rotary Club of Harrisonburg. Well into his mid-eighties, he devoted many volunteer hours to the pharmacy at the Harrisonburg Rockingham Free Clinic. He was also a member of First Presbyterian Church in Harrisonburg, and a former member of Elkton Presbyterian Church, where he served as a deacon and an elder.
He is survived by three daughters, Ann B. Siciliano and husband, Mark, Betsy B. Kennedy and husband, Dan, all of Harrisonburg, and Jane M. Brown of Bridgewater; two grandchildren, John Siciliano and wife, Raven, of McGaheysville, and Maggie Siciliano of New York, NY; one sister, Sally Brown Cline of Graham, NC; and fourteen nieces and nephews.
A Service of Witness to the Resurrection in celebration of Dick's life will be held at First Presbyterian Church in Harrisonburg on Saturday, September 25, at two o'clock by the Reverend Jon Heeringa. The family requests that face masks be worn in the church sanctuary. His burial will be private. The family will receive friends following the memorial service.