“Marcus”

August 15

You meet people who forget you. You forget people you meet. But sometimes you meet those people you can’t forget. Those are your friends. ~ Mark Twain

[Over the years, we got together less and less. Travel is not kind to the aging body . . . ]

Mark Edward Brown 77 years old of Herndon, Virginia, passed away on July 22, 2023, in Herndon, VA.

Mark was preceded in death by his brother James Brown. He is survived by his brother Peter, daughter Jennifer, son Mark, mother of his children, Donna, and his grandchildren Owen & Evan.

Mark was born on August 12, 1945, in Washington, DC to parents Donald & Francis Brown. Mark attended University High School in Normal, Illinois, Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois for his undergraduate degree and Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois for graduate work.

Following college Mark spent three years in the Army as a First Lieutenant and then 44 years with the U.S. Department of Commerce as the Director, Office of Budget and with NOAA/OAR as Chief Financial Officer. Mark was a devoted civil servant and received multiple honors working at the U.S. Department of Commerce and was highly regarded by Congress for his excellent work in finance for the Commerce Department.

Through out his life Mark enjoyed golfing, hunting, and attending Nascar races with his brother Jim and friends, taking his family on road trip vacations, going to Washington Redskins games with best friend Andy & son Mark and hosting annual Super Bowl parties at the house.

After retirement Mark enjoyed spending time at his home in Ocean City, Maryland, traveling to see friends and family, working on the Brown family ancestry, attending the annual Cigar Fest in Pennsylvania, and spending time with his grandchildren.

*****

The following explains an issue within the purview of Mark’s office (which was adjacent to that of the Secretary of Commerce) and was brought to the attention of the general public in Michael Lewis’s book, The Fifth Risk, and thus the weather quotes throughout this missive:

A private company whose weather predictions were totally dependent on the billions of dollars spent by the U.S. taxpayer to gather the data necessary for those predictions, and on decades of intellectual weather work sponsored by the U.S. taxpayer, and on international data-sharing treaties made on behalf of the U.S. taxpayer, and on the very forecasts that the National Weather Service generated, was, in effect, trying to force the U.S. taxpayer to pay all over again for what the National Weather Service might be able to tell him or her for free. (www.reddit.com/r/weather/)

*****

We should expect the best and the worst of mankind, as from the weather. ~ Vauvenargues

[A classy guy in a classy place, Marcus at the golf guys annual Christmas lunch at the Willard Hotel in 1993 . . . ]

You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. ~ Bob Dylan

[My acquaintance with Marcus was established through things real men did in the old days: golfed, fished, played softball for something like 25 years. These are the golf guys, with significant others, fine dining somewhere in the greater Washington, D.C., metropolitan statistical area: Marcus, Bob, Danny, Jim (Mark’s brother), and me.]

Bed is the perfect climate. ~ Noel Coward

[Da boys, Danny (on the left) and me were the two youngest of the group, and now are the only ones left . . . ]

Barometer, n. An ingenious instrument which indicates what kind of weather we are having. ~ Abrose Bierce

[Another fine dining experience at a place lost in the ethers of time . . . ]

Weather forecast for tonight: dark. ~ George Carlin

[Where is this place?]

It’s freezing and snowing in New York – we need global warming! ~ Donald Trump

[Again, I have no idea. I do not remember the names of the guys on each end, but I believe the gentleman on the right retired to Prescott, AZ, and looks remarkably like Dwaine Berger of Alexandria, MN . . . ]

Fall 1989

Don’t knock the weather. If it didn’t change once in a while, nine out of ten people couldn’t start a conversation. ~ Kin Hubbard

[Marcus (foreground) explores the wonders of surf fishing – a nap in a folding chair soothed by the surf under the sun . . . ]

You want a prediction about the weather, you’re asking the wrong Phil. I’ll give you a winter prediction: It’s gonna be cold, it’s gonna be grey, and it’s gonna last you for the rest of your life. ~ Bill Murray (Groundhog Day)

[The fishing boys visited the Outer Banks of North Carolina every spring and fall in hopes of catching the migrating bluefish runs. Most years, though, it was just a great time to catch up on our sleep . . . ]

Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it. ~ Charles Dudley Warner

[You’d wade out into the waves as far as your waders would allow, cast out as far as you could with your 9-12′ surf casting rod with 4-8 ounces of lead weight on the end with a mullet-baited hook, walk back up the beach, place your rod in a sand spike, sit down in your folding lawn chair, and hope nothing would bite so you could have a nice nap, waking occasionally for a beer . . . ]

It doesn’t matter what the weather is like – even if it’s minus 10 I will go out there and fish. ~ Adrian Lewis

[A year we guessed right. That’s me with about a 10-pound blue – a nice tussle through the surf. Marcus is heading down on the far right for his next cast . . . ]

December 12, 1992

I absolutely loathe sleeping in a tent, regardless of the weather. ~ James Acaster

[The golf guys occasionally annual Christmas lunch at the Willard Hotel (years before it became the site of sedition meetings) in Washington, D.C. . . . ]

In fair weather prepare for foul. ~ Thomas Fuller

[We enjoyed the ambience of a men’s club atmosphere, with dark wood paneling and after meal digestifs and fine cigars . . . ]

October 22, 1993

I kind of like rainy weather at nighttime. I used to take naps in rainy weather. ~ YBN Nahmir

[Hoping we timed the autumn trip right – Marcus on the left . . . ]

If you want to see the sunshine, you have to weather the storm. ~ Frank Lane

[We’d place the chairs between the SUV’s for windbreaks . . . ]

Bad weather always looks worse through a window. ~ Tom Lehrer

[The Brown brothers ISO the mighty bluefish . . . ]

Summer 2002

One can’t predict the weather more than a few days in advance. ~ Stephen Hawking

[This photo was undated. I’m pretty sure this is the first time Marcus (at the helm of our pontoon, the Moby Obie) visited us on beautiful Lake Darling after we retired to Minnesota . . . ]

July 6 2005

Sometimes I wish that I was the weather, you’d bring me up in conversation forever. And when it rained, I’d be the talk of the day. ~ John Mayer

[At Arrowwood Resort on Lake Darling with Jami, Danny, and grandson Tommy . . . ]

The Bermuda Triangle got tired of warm weather. It moved to Alaska. Now Santa Claus is missing. ~ Steven Wright

[Just another beautiful day in Vacationland USA . . . ]

July 7, 2005

I’ve never been one to bet on the weather. ~ J. Paul Getty

[When one visits Alexandria one must visit Carlos Creek Winery . . . ]

March 28, 2006

I’m leaving because the weather is too good. I hate London when it’s not raining. ~ Groucho Marx

[Back in D.C. for a visit and fine dining with the surf fishing group . . . ]

October 11, 2006

Poets are always taking the weather so personally. They’re always sticking their emotions in things that have no emotions. ~ J. D. Salinger

[Marcus came back to Alex, and we paid a visit to Carlos Creek Winery . . . ]

The people of the State of Texas consist principally of men, women, and children, with a sprinkling of cowboys. The weather is very good, thermometer rarely rising above 2,500 degrees in the shade and hardly ever below 212. ~ O. Henry

[Looks like we’re enjoying the winery’s signature Marquette . . . ]

Some scientists believe climate change is the cause of unprecedented melting of the North Pole, and that effects these very uncertain weather patterns. I think we should listen to those scientists and experts. ~ Dalai Lama

[And then a visit to Sixth Avenue Wine & Ale for dinner . . . ]

All we need is a meteorologist who has once been soaked to the skin without ill effect. No one can write knowingly of the weather who walks bent over on wet days. ~ E. B. White

[Marcus is wearing a Goose Creek sweatshirt, the golf course in Leesburg, VA, we played most often over the years . . . ]

August 9, 2009

Almost nothing is more tedious than complaining about the weather. ~ Meghan Daum

[Here at Arrowwood Resort and Conference Center on Lake Darling in Alex . . . ]

I’m a big follower and reactor to weather. ~ Jimmy Buffett

[We likely went to Arrowwood via the Moby Obie . . . ]

Among famous traitors of history one might mention the weather. ~ Ilka Chase

[Likely a business call for Marcus . . . ]

August 10, 2009

I’ve lived in good climate, and it bores the hell out of me. I like weather rather than climate. ~ John Steinbeck

[It is a rite of passage for all out-of-towners to visit the Lake Minnewaska overlook in Glenwood. Marcus drove to Alex from Herndon, VA, in his new white Ford Edge. I bought one soon after his visit . . . ]

The increasing frequency of extreme weather events, droughts and floods is in line with what climate scientists have been predicting for decades – and evidence is mounting that what’s happening is more severe than predicted, and will get far worse still if we fail to act. ~ David Suzuki

[“Yeah, this is pretty cool!” ~ Marcus]

I once dated a weather girl, we talked up a storm. ~ Jay London

Syracuse, New York, is like Hawaii for eight months of the year. The other four months, I don’t care about the weather because we’re playing basketball. ~ Jim Boeheim

Homosexuality is like the weather. It just is. ~ Andrew Sullivan

[Lake Minnewaska is over 8,000 acres large with 20 miles of shoreline. In the foreground is the city of Glenwood (population 2,700) and on the far side of the lake lies the city of Starbuck (population just under 1,400) . . . ]

Concrete is, essentially, the color of bad weather. ~ William Hamilton

[Marcus at a neighborhood landmark – the Muddy Boot in Forada (population 170) . . . ]

I’ve always been fascinated by weather. ~ Shepard Smith

[More fine dining, in the train car of Weston Station where the great and near-great met over great steaks and wine . . . ]

The L.A. weather is a lot like Taiwan’s, where you don’t observe four seasons, so the years can pass and you don’t feel a thing. ~ Ang Lee

[A major loss for the area when this restaurant closed its doors forever several years ago . . . ]

August 11, 2009

We may achieve climate, but weather is thrust upon us. ~ O. Henry

[Marcus at the entrance to the Minnesota Lakes Maritime Museum, subsequently renamed the Legacy of the Lakes Museum . . . ]

I feel more like an environmentalist since I’ve been up here. There are parts of the Earth that are covered with pollution all the time. I saw weather that was unexpected. Storms bigger than we’ve seen in the past. This is a human effect. This is not a natural phenomenon. ~ Scott Kelly

[A Falls Flyer speed boat built in Little Falls, MN, c. 1940’s . . . ]

I spent a lot of my youth working outside in the elements, and I kind of revel in defeating tough weather. ~ Nick Offerman

[The museum’s cover of a lake cottage . . . ]

Scarves, mittens, and hats are a great way to express your personality in the cold weather. ~ Brad Goreski

[Marcus coming out the backside of the museum into the maritime gardens . . . ]

Change of weather is the discourse of fools. ~ Thomas Fuller

[Daydreaming about life on the lakes . . . ]

There are three reasons why I live in Scotland. First, I like silence, and you have to be a millionaire to buy silence in Italy. Second, I like cold weather. Third, in Italy I have too many relatives and know too many people, so I never get a quiet time. ~ Gian Carlo Menotti

[Ruthie and Marcus wining and dining at Sixth Avenue Wine & Ale in Alex. Based on what I could find in the photo archives this appears to have been Marcus’s last visit to Alex . . . ]

March 31, 2011

A bank is a place where they lend you an umbrella in fair weather and ask for it back when it begins to rain. ~ Robert Frost

[On a D.C. visit with Marcus at the Carlyle Grand Cafe in Shirlington (a section of Arlington) – two blocks of fine dining on both sides of the street, and thus, logically a favorite destination for this reporter . . . ]

Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get. ~ Mark Twain

February 1, 2013

Nature is so powerful, so strong. Capturing its essence is not easy – your work becomes a dance with light and the weather. It takes you to a place within yourself. ~ Annie Leibovitz

[Those brave enough to venture out in the biting cold of that day, gathered at The Dubliner for an Irish nosh. Pictured here is my brother-in-law, Mohamed Chighali, standing, who dined on the very Irish Philly cheese steak, and Mark, sitting right, who recently retired as, I believe, the equivalent of the CFO for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and who, as I recall, dined on the more traditional fish & chips . . . ]

I love being new places and hate getting there, and have been known to say on multiple occasions that I would give anything from a piece of my soul to a limb to a portion of my life savings to teleport. Especially when bad weather keeps me off planes. ~ V. E. Schwab

[The last time we saw Mark in D.C. . . . ]

Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative. ~ Oscar Wilde

We can’t get to the $4 trillion in savings that we need by just cutting the 12 percent of the budget that pays for things like medical research and education funding and food inspectors and the weather service. And we can’t just do it by making seniors pay more for Medicare. ~ Barack Obama