Charles Herbert “Herb” Brown Jr., retired West Point educator, dies

At West Point High School, where he retired as associate principal in 1993, easygoing Charles Herbert "Herb" Brown Jr., also a band-choral director and teacher, was in charge of discipline.

"He found good in everybody. He loved everyone. It didn't matter who you were or where you lived," said his wife, Margaret Hill Brown. Since his death at age 72 from multiple myeloma on Tuesday, "many kids have come by and said that Mr. Brown would suspend them and they'd walk out of his office smiling," she said.

He had the same type of effect on the board of Arts Alive Inc., a group he helped found that brings entertainment and the arts to the Robinson/Olsson Auditorium and Fine Arts Center in West Point.

"Herb agreed to be the first president. When we got into a little detail, arguing, he kept us calm. He kept us on an even keel. He was one of those guys that everyone trusted," said Andrew J. Conklin of West Point, vice president of Arts Alive.

Mr. Brown, who played piano and trumpet, was instrumental in acquiring a piano for the arts center. He and a local church music director played that piano separately and together in the first piano program at the center.

Under Mr. Brown's leadership the first four years, the Arts Alive program expanded from bringing in groups, such as the Richmond Ballet and Legends of Motown, to offering art exhibits and workshops as well as children's summer camps for art and drama, Conklin said.

Mr. Brown crusaded to get the arts center built while he served on the West Point School Board from 1994 to 2002. Completed in 2004, the building itself resulted from a confluence of "tremendous effort," not only from residents of West Point but also those in the counties of King William, King and Queen and New Kent, all of whom use it and many of whom had never known each other before, Conklin said.

"It was one of those things that touched everyone and really worked out well," he said.

A Gloucester native, Mr. Brown grew up singing and playing the piano, at first by ear. By the age of 4, "if he could hear you sing something, he could play it on the piano," his wife said. He graduated with a piano major from the Shenandoah Conservatory of Music at Dayton and later earned a master's degree in education from Virginia Commonwealth University.

He served as band and choral director at Middlesex High School in Saluda, where he organized small jazz bands to give his students the chance to play at proms and local other events, and he taught summers at Christ Church School, a nearby prep school for boys.

He came to West Point High School as assistant principal and band and choral director in 1967.

Mr. Brown "played for weddings -- nobody can count the number -- of kids he had taught and for their children," his wife said. He had also played in jazz groups for cocktail parties and other local events.

"His first priority always was his kids -- anything that would help them, and teachers to implement the programs. Teaching was his passion," his wife said.

In addition to his wife, survivors include a son, David Copeland Brown of Mechanicsville; two daughters, Elizabeth Coverleigh Brown and Cary Tomlinson, both of West Point; a sister, Carolyn Sterling of Gloucester; and six grandchildren.

A funeral will be held Saturday at 11 a.m. at Christ Church (Episcopal) Parish in Christchurch. Burial will be private.