Brown, Lloyd M.
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Brown, Lloyd M.
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L L 0 Y D
MA R T I N
1 9 0 1
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B R 0 WN
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Lloyd Martin Brown was born in Allegan , Michigan , June 4 , 1901 .
He was graduated from the
public schools of that city and from Albion College
and Drew Theological Semina.ry.
He served as assist-
ant pastor of the Burton Heights parish in Grand
Rapids in 1928 and 1929 , following student charges at
Albion and Madison , "New Jersey..
From Grand Ra~pids
he went to Vicksburg for two years and the next two
years he served at Damon and Comstock churches near
Kalamazoo .
Lloyd Martin Brown possessed abundant equipment
for wide and useful service in the Kingdom of God .
He fed his intellectual life on solid nutriment that
made for strength of mind and virility of faith .
He was one of those few ministers who used the
Gre~k
New Testament .
th~
Lloyd was not content to take
easy way of others• interpretations .
J
He delighted
to dig out translations and arrive a.t truth by himself .
No wonder he developed virile sinews of the
mind and dazzled us again and again with the bril -
.j
liancy and originality of his comments .
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Put him in a seminar group anywhere and those
present soon knew that a searching and analytical
mind was present .
· i th his keen sense of values
and rare penetration he could make fine discriminations and sift the wheat from the chaff .
More and more he moved with sure step in the
high planes of the soul .
Faith for him was not
blind credulity , yet humbly he trusted "the soul's
invincible surmise and was led into the thinking of
the thought divine . "
Lloyd Brown had much to give in talented leadership and he gave it .
Young people in the Insti-
tutes profited by his brilliant teaching.
Children
in the parish knew his shepherd heart and were
trained conscientiously for Church membership .
Men
of the community found in him a man among men - cleaq .,
inspiring , with friendly and helpful understanding of
their interests .
At the time of. his death he was
the President of the Kalamazoo District Epworth
Leagues .
His avocation was
good workman .
wood-worki~g .
And
he was a
In spirit and in craftmanship he had
kinship with the Carpenter of Nazareth.
The touch
of his handiwork is everywhere present in the home
that he loved .
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Michigan Methodism lost one of its most
promising young ministers shortly before Conference
1933 , in the sudden passing of The Reverend Lloyd
M. Brown .
In July he was taken ill , but his physi-
cal condition was not known to be serious- until three
weeks before he passed away .
A thorough medical
4
examination disclosed that he was a victim of acute
leukemia and that he had but a short time to be with
us here .
He faced the verdict heroically and kept
his rendezvous with death like a good soldier of
Jesus Christ ,
consc~ous
of his rectitude of conduct
in life here and confident that God would open thedoor of new life to him over there .
Friday evening , September 15 , 1933,
Brothe~
Lloyd Brown ( called by some "the flying parson"
because of his keen interest in aviation) after a
c~rebral
hemorrhage , took off in a final flight to
the skies of God .
Somewhere on the flying fields of
Hea ven's tablelands he has been welcomed by the
Father of our spirits who keeps the beacons burning
that we may not lose the way home in the night .
Funeral services were held in the First Methodist Episcopal Church at Kalamazoo on September 18,
with
w.
F . Kendrick , District Superintendent, and
D. Stanley Coors in charge .
As
far as possible the:
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arrangements were carried out as made by Brother
Brown in anticipation of the services to be held .
Brothers
w.
H. Helrigel and Raymond Spurlock and
L. H. Cone of the Episcopal Church , Allegan,
A
assiste~
large company of ministers sang the hymn he -had'
chosen, "We May Not Climb The Heavenly Steeps To
Bring The Lord Christ Down . 11
Mr . James M.
~hackle-
ton, organist , gave the musical setting of comfort
and faith in playing "Lead, Kindly Light," as had ·
also been requested .
A brief service was held at
the grave with Brother Harold Weston assisting •
..
Burial was made at Allegan.
He is survived by the widow, the former Ruth
Thatcher of Battle Creek, and by a son , Richard Hugh
Brown , two and one-half years old .
There also
survive him his father , Burdette Brown , and four
brothers, Darl , Gordon , Glen and Lawrence .
We here thank the Master of all good workmen
for this noble friend , highly endowed in abilities·
and qualities of hand and heart and mind .
We
than'(
Him for this high soul who took the high road and
kept it to the end .
The foregoing was written in 1936 .
l
Brown, Lloyd M.