Curt Brown ends long performance at Uniontown church

Former BJ reporter J. Curt Brown struck his last chord as music director and organist/choirmaster at New Life Episcopal Church in Uniontown.

Curt Brown at the organ

Writes Curt, who went from covering unions for the BJ (1971-74) to working for the United Rubber Workers and the United Steelworkers for years:

 “It had become an appropriate time for me for this to come to a conclusion. I am grateful to my New Life Episcopal Church friends, choir members and retired or former clergy who made this such an edifying experience. I will miss the parishioners who treated me so kindly.”

Curt says he has no immediate plans to begin a third career.

Curt, 70, teaches piano and organ at his Highland Square home. He also does organ recitals. His mother and two sisters also played the piano.

Curt was city editor of the Charleston Gazette, West Virginia's largest newspaper, when the Marshall University plane carrying the football team, staff and supporters crashed in 1970 on its way back to Huntington after a game, wiping out the Thundering Herd's grid squad. 

Curt was in Charleston on a National Guard assignment when he met the wife of a Gazette editor during a visit to the Unitarian Fellowship. He wound up working for the Gazette. 

The next year, Curt came to the BJ. And later began his PR work for the unions.

Curt was captain of his high school swim team, and also competed in swimming at Baldwin-Wallace. He studied at Oberlin College, with its highly regarded College of Arts & Science Conservatory of Music.

J. Curtis Brown, Jr. is the son of Curt and Curt's late wife, Jolan "Jody" Moldvay Brown, who died in 1993.