Richard Dale Brown

Richard Dale Brown, 82, of Terre Haute, Indiana (formerly of Loleta, CA, Salt Lake City,
UT, Goldiwil Switzerland, and Southern California) died of Alzheimer’s at home with his
daughter Liz and sister Linda by his side.
He was preceded in death by his parents W. William Brown, Sr. and Florence Child. He
is survived by siblings W. William Brown, Jr. (Marilyn), Robert Brown, Anthony Brown
(Pat), Linda Kern (Larry), Stephen Brown (Darlene), Midge Johnson (Rick), and Nathan
Brown (Gina Stordahl), children Liz Brown (Andre Kummerow), Michael Brown, Kathryn
Balley (Daniel), Amy Godoy (Russell Brand), and David Musick (Heather). He has
fifteen grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren.
Richard was born in Salt Lake City, Utah on May 24, 1943. He grew up in a home
where he experienced extreme physical and emotional abuse. Thankfully, that
generational cycle ended with him and he became a kind, generous, accepting, and
loving adult. He loved learning and worked hard to become an Eagle Scout. It
transpired that he was the youngest ever to achieve this rank, although that was not his
goal. He temporarily escaped his abusive home as a teenager and joined a carnival,
traveling around the Midwest for two years before returning home for six months to
complete high school. He then joined the navy where he served as a hospital corpsman
and ended up attached to a marine general’s staff, traveling with him through Japan,
South Korea, Vietnam, and other countries before his honorable discharge after over
four years of service. He met Mary Musick in Santa Ana, California and they were
married on October 17, 1964. They had five children together and later divorced.
During the 23 years they were apart, he was married to Glenna Swearengin and later
Franziska von Below. Richard and Mary recommitted to each other on May 15, 1999
and have been together ever since. They lived together in the wilds near Loleta,
California on five acres for nearly 22 years.
Richard led an interesting, varied life and he was an interesting, varied person. He was
kind, generous, outrageously funny, and an extreme extrovert. He worked for many
years as a private investigator. When his children were very young, he worked several
undercover jobs that resulted in numerous criminal convictions. Later he worked mainly
as a subrosa investigator and had his own firm where he trained and mentored other
investigators. He was a scuba diver, ocean sailboat captain, and was part of the improv
and theater scene in San Diego in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He lived in
Switzerland for five years with his then-wife Franziska, where he participated in English-
language theater and taught English and improv. He was known as the “Spinnert
Ammi” (crazy American) in the village they lived in. When he and Mary moved to Loleta
in 2002 he went back to his navy roots, working as a CNA at St. Joseph’s Hospital in
Eureka, California for 12 years before he retired. Richard and Mary moved to Terre
Haute in February 2024 where they lived with their daughter Liz and son-in-law Andre.

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