Donald Brown

Donald Michael Brown

1936 - 2025

On the evening of Friday October 31st, 2025 we lost our much beloved and widely adored father Donald Michael Brown at the age of 89 to cancer after a brief admittance to the Ottawa General Hospital. Dad was surrounded by family at the end and we were all able to hold his hand and tell him we loved him one last time.

Born on August 30, 1936 in Carleton Place, ON., Dad was the oldest of three children and extremely proud of his Carleton Place upbringing. A Carleton Place High School graduate, Dad was a member of the CPHS championship football team in 1953. Dad also played hockey for the Smiths Falls Juniors 1954 ODHA Citizen Shield Championship team. After high school, Dad attended Royal Military College in St. Jean, QC where he suffered a knee injury playing for the football team causing him to leave the military. Dad got on with the Ontario Ministry of Highways and worked on the St. Lawrence Seaway as well as being part of the crew constructing part of the Trans Canada Highway in White River, ON. Dad subsequently enrolled in the old Ottawa Teachers College to begin the start of a lengthy teaching career with former Ottawa Board of Education and the former Carleton Board of Education, retiring as a principal at age 55 in 1991.

On Valentine’s Day 1960, Dad met Joyce Lewis, an attractive young lady from Cape Breton who was working on Parliament Hill. Marriage followed on August 31, 1961 in Mom’s home town of Reserve Mines, NS. After a brief pit stop living on Creighton Street in New Edinburgh with two young boys Andrew and Joel, Mom and dad in 1967 became original home owners on Country Lane in Glen Cairn (now Kanata) where Dad resided until his passing. Youngest son Derek arrived the same year Mom and Dad moved in.

Mom and dad were life long parishioners at St. Pauls’ Anglican Church in Kanata where Mom sang in the choir. Dad was active in the church in various roles until his passing. Dad was also very active in the Glen Cairn community, coaching his boys in youth sports and eventually devoting his spare time to various roles in hockey administration culminating with a lengthy role with Hockey Canada after his teaching retirement. Dad was very honoured to be the Hockey Canada liaison that accompanied the National Junior Team to the World Junior Hockey Championship in Moscow in 2001. We are proud to acknowledge that as recognition of Dad’s lifetime volunteer service to the community, Don Brown Way in Kanata is named after our father. Dad also received a Lifetime Volunteer Achievement Award in 2009 at the Ottawa Sports Awards.

Dad’s love of birds was life long as he participated in the Lanark County Bird Census for over 70 years. We grew up with bird feeders in the back yard and stray cats were not welcome! Until most recently, Dad would make regular drives to Gilligallou in Almonte to get his bird feed. In recent years after Mom’s passing in 2022, the swing Mom and Dad would sit on became the bird feeding station. It was not unusual to observe at the same time an array of birds, squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits and the occasional rat enjoying Dad’s buffet offerings. We chuckled at Dad’s c'est la vie lack of concern for the rat’s presence.

Dad, along with his brother David, was a long time member of the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 192 in Carleton Place carrying on a long family history of service.

We would be remiss without mentioning Dad’s penchant, much to the chagrin of his family, for driving the scenic route as opposed to the fastest route including those long family drives to Cape Breton. Are we there yet? Dad never met a side road he did not want to drive on.

In retirement Dad especially cherished Mom and Dads’ late summer early/fall drive to visit Mom’s extended family in Cape Breton (the Lewis’, the Sharpes, the Mathesons, the Gardiners to name a few). Dad was diligent about keeping in contact with Mom’s cousins in Alberta and BC. Good memories of time spent at Uncle Donnie and Aunt Avice Matheson’s bungalow on the Mira River, family outings at Dominion beach or visiting Uncle Adam and Aunt Lois and their daughter Cynthia and her husband Sean in Sydney.

Dad was our rock and lived life with an iron clad commitment to his family, his friends, his country and his faith. God Speed Dad and don’t take the scenic route, St. Peter and Mom are waiting!

Dad leaves behind his three sons, Andrew Brown, Joel Brown and Derek Brown, foster daughter Patricia McGuiness, daughter in law Shelley MacKinnon, his two granddaughters Emma and Olivia Brown, sister Deanna Ferguson, brother David Brown, brother-in-law Bill Ferguson and brother-in-law Adam Lewis and many nieces and nephews. Dad was preceded in death by his parents Leonard and Elizabeth (Lib) Brown, father-in-law and mother-in-law Worrell and Emma Lewis, sister-in law Judy Brown, sister-in-law Lois Lewis and nephew Brian Ferguson.

A Celebration of Life for Don will be held on Friday November 7th at St. Paul’s Anglican Church located at 20 Young Side Road Kanata, ON.

Visitation will take place from 10-11am in the church hall. The Funeral Service will start at 11 am in the Church chapel. A post funeral reception/visitation will be held in the hall afterwards for those unable to make the visitation and funeral service. Sandwiches and snacks will be served during the post service reception. Private burial at St. James Anglican Church Cemetery in Carleton Place immediately following the conclusion of the reception at 1pm. 

To honour Don Brown, the family kindly asks that in lieu of flowers, a donation be made to the Canadian Cancer Society in his name. 

https://fundraisemyway.cancer.ca/campaigns/Donald-Michael-Brown

The Service will also be live streamed on the St. Paul’s webpage: Watch (stpaulshk.org)

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