John Hunn Brown, 93

WYOMING - Well-known former businessman John Hunn Brown, aged 93, passed away Sunday, Sept. 6, 2009, at Kent General Hospital, Dover, following a short illness. Son of Alice Emerson Hunn and Dr. Thomas Ross Brown, John was born on Oct. 24, 1915, and was a lifelong resident of Wyoming. John was a 1933 graduate of Caesar Rodney High School, attended the Hill School in Pottstown, Pa., and was graduated from Swarthmore College in 1938. For many years, Mr. Brown maintained and operated his farm in Dover, on the east side of U.S. 13, where he had a large and productive peach orchard. One primary variety that the farm was known for was the "Belle of Georgia" peach. He sold this property in the late 1990s. The Safeway, Royal Farms, Target, and other commercial establishments now occupy the site. In addition, Mr. Brown owned and operated the T.R. Brown Lumber Company in Wyoming, Del., from the late 1930s until the 1970s. In the 1940s he was also a home building contractor. From a young age, Mr. Brown took an avid interest in the stock market, which led to a short career as an investment counselor in his later years. John was a long-standing and the oldest living member of the Maple Dale Country Club. John Hunn Brown was a birthright Friend (Quaker) and a lifelong member of Camden Friends Meeting. At the time of his death he was the Recorder for the Meeting and Clerk of the Burial Grounds Committee. In these roles, he served the Meeting for over sixty years. John was also a Camden Meeting Trustee for many years. Through his mother, Mr. Brown was descended from Priscilla Kitchen, who came to Delaware from Massachusetts in 1686. This ancestress was married four times, and bore three children from her first husband, Nathaniel Hunn. John Hunn, Jr. Governor of Delaware from 1901 until 1905, and his father John Hunn, The Abolitionist and Chief Engineer of the Underground Railroad in Delaware, were the grandfather and great-grandfather respectively of John Hunn Brown. In 1960, John Hunn Brown married the former Barbara Babb of Petersburg, W.Va. Last June they celebrated their 49th wedding anniversary. In addition to his parents, Mr. Brown was predeceased by his only sibling, Alice Brown Boone in 2003. Survivors include his wife, Barbara; his daughter, Alice Hunn Brown II of Wyoming; and his son, John Hunn Brown Jr., MD, of Charleston, S.C. At John's request, there will be no service. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests that contributions be made to Camden Friends Meeting, 122 East Camden-Wyoming Avenue, Camden, DE 19934. Letters of condolence can be sent via www.pippinfuneralhome.com.