Author Gary Pierce Brown `66

I am a graduate of Wooster, class of 1966, and a retired pastor living in the Finger Lakes of western New York. My late wife, Martha Eshelman Brown (known as “Marty”), was in the class of 1965. My second children’s book, entitled Maggie of the Crooked Lake, a true story about my current dog, is about to be published, and is in memory of Martha.

My first children’s book, Willy of the Crooked Lake, was about a previous rescue dog we found, and it was published in 2015. This book was a fund-raiser to help complete a new shelter at the Finger Lakes SPCA in Bath, NY — we raised approximately $40,000 for that project, along with providing matching funds and connections that brought in tens of thousands more in support. I did book signings at the Lowry Center at a class reunion with the Willy book. Approximately 1800 Willy books have been distributed thus far. My wonderful collaborator and illustrator for the Willy book is an artist friend of many decades, Bonnie Mitchell, and the book was self-published.

Maggie of the Crooked Lake, also self-published and also illustrated by Bonnie, will be a fund-raiser for two organizations dear to my heart: CareFirstNY, a hospice organization headquartered in Painted Post NY, and Bampa’s House, a comfort care home located in Corning NY. CareFirst helped me take care of my wife when she was terminally ill in 2014, and the current headquarters of CareFirstNY is located on what was once my grandparents’ land, in a decommissioned school once named for my grandfather. Bampa’s House was created by the family of one of my high school friends and is located in my original home town of Corning. The rationale, in part, for the choice of the two agencies is that Maggie was picked out at the SPCA by my wife before her illness (and her care by hospice), and the story relates how I lost my wife and how Maggie then “rescued” me and became my dog.

Posted in on December 21, 2022.