Getting to Know: City Council Candidate Marvin L. Brown

This is the first in a series of personality profiles and video interviews with the candidates running for two seats in the General Election on Tuesday.

Marvin L. Brown is one of four candidates seeking two seats when voters hit the polls on Tuesday to choose who will represent them for the next two years as members of the Maricopa City Council.

He’s been active in the community spreading his campaign platform through public forums, more intimate meet-and-greet events and by regularly attending the very City Council meetings he will be required to participate in if elected ( see “City Election 2008 Candidate Profile Series: Marvin L. Brown”).

But who is the person behind the campaign?

Like many Arizona transplants, the state’s warm weather and the accompanying year-round availability of tee times at hundreds of golf courses were among the initial attractions that brought Brown from Michigan to Maricopa.

Brown said it all started for himself and his wife, Helen Brown, with visits to a timeshare in Scottsdale, conveniently located next to a Professional Golf Association course.

“I was intrigued with the mountains and golfing,” he said.

The first trip to Scottsdale led to a second, and eventually more trips which included visits to housing communities in Buckeye, Goodyear, Surprise, Litchfield Park and more.

It was by invitation from the developers of Pebble Creek that brought the Browns to Arizona for their fourth visit in April 2005.

“We decided we probably would like to move here, but we weren’t quite sure where,” he said. “At that time, it was at the height of the housing boom and you had to win a lottery” to buy a house.

That’s when Brown turned to one of his friends in Michigan, who had ties to Arizona through Pulte Homes.

“He put me in touch with a salesperson who said the best house for the money is in Maricopa,” Brown said. “I remember saying, ‘I know where Maricopa County is. Where the heck is Maricopa city?'”

It was a question he might have considered repeating on arrival.

“There was nothing,” he said. “Fry’s was just a skeleton.”

That didn’t dissuade him and his wife from signing a contract to build in Senita. The couple, who were then newlyweds, moved in by June 2006.

“That’s how we got to beautiful, dynamic, vital Maricopa, Arizona,” he said.

Helen Brown, who was widowed when they met, has a daughter, a son and a grandson.

Brown has three daughters from a previous marriage along with a grandson and granddaughter.

The couple do not have a pet, maybe because at the age of 9, Brown lost his beloved terrier, Tony.

“He was hit by a car, and I guess I just have never felt the same about dogs,” he said.

While Brown admits golf was one of the main attractions to moving to the Southwest, he said his all-time favorite sports are baseball and basketball. And, lately, because of a rotator cuff injury, he has cut back on what used to be regular visits to The Duke at Rancho El Dorado to play a few rounds.

In addition to sports, Brown’s passions include supporting St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, Doctors without Borders and the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala.

“I love kids,” Brown said of his support for St. Jude’s. “Danny Thomas, may he rest in peace. He’s had a great impact on children. When you see those big eyes ….”

Doctors without Borders gets a portion of his income for similar reasons.

As for the Southern Poverty Law Center, “They’ve done a great job in combating racism,” he said.

His all-time passion, however, is much grander.

“My defining passion is something, unfortunately, I don’t know if it would ever be achieved and it sounds corny, but it’s world peace.”

“I have donated to peace causes over the years,” he said, listing his support of achieving some sort of conflict resolution in Bosnia, Darfur, Rawanda, Iraq and Vietnam.

“I see it (war) as such a waste of life and resources that could have been dedicated to education or scientific research,” he said.

Brown finds his personal peace by listening to the jazz sounds of days gone by and classic artists such as Frank Sinatra and Barbara Streisand.

“This hip-hop stuff, I just can’t get with,” he said.

The true classical compositions of Beethoven, Mozart and Chopin, however, top the list.

“Beethoven is probably my favorite,” he said, as his eyes teared up and delivery of his words became visibly more difficult. “Ode to Joy, Beethoven’s 9th, it just does something to my soul to hear something so beautiful written by a man who couldn’t even hear. That is a gift from God. It sounds crazy getting choked up just talking about it. But I love that piece.”

Below: Marvin L. Brown speaks to voters:

 

 

 

Video by RuthAnn Hogue

For a collection of our previous and continuing election coverage please visit our elections page.

Contact the Candidates
Marvin Brown
Carl Diedrich
Will Dunn
Kelly Haddad