Miriam L. Brown

 On February 1, Miriam L. Brown, died at age 97 in Tucson, AZ. She was born in Newark to E. Herman Laskowitz and the former Sydell Gorlin, and she married Richard W. Brown from Elizabeth. She grew up, raised her family, and taught high school French and Spanish in Maplewood, where she was vice president of the Maplewood Citizens Committee for the Public Schools, a member of the Lay-Professional Committee of the Maplewood-South Orange board of Education, and a board member of the Maplewood Human Rights Council, the National Council of Christians and Jews, and the American Assn. of the United Nations, Maplewood Chapter. A founding member of congregation Beth El and later a member of Temple Israel, she was active in the local chapter of the National Council of Jewish Women. She earned her B.A. in French at New Jersey College for Women in 1939, and, in 1965, she and her husband received their master’s degrees together at Seton Hall: hers in French literature, his in education.  She later completed the course requirements for a Ph.D. in French Literature at Rutgers, but interrupted her studies to begin a teaching career, first at Hanover Park and Westfield High Schools, then at Columbia. Widowed in 1970, she moved to New York’s Greenwich Village, where she volunteered at Off Broadway theaters, the New York City Dept. of Consumer Affairs, and the Mayor’s Second Careers Program.  She also worked for a women’s medical program and for the artist Jon R. Schueler. In the late 1980s she moved to Tucson, AZ. Eventually, she resided at The Forum, a Tucson independent living residence, where she served on the board of directors and as program chairman and was well known for her baking. Miriam spoke fluent French and traveled to five continents.

She touched many with her generous humor, advice, comfort, and good meals.

She is survived by three children, Carol Brown of Silver Spring, MD, David Brown of Melrose, MA, and Judith Brown of Tucson, AZ.

If you would like to make a charitable gift in memory of Miriam, the family suggests  you consider National Jewish Health in Denver, CO, the Tucson Medical Center Hospice in Tucson, AZ, or Congregation Chaverim (Rabbi’s Discretionary Fund), also in Tucson.