Garry P. Brown

Garry P. Brown

(1931-2022)

Garry Brown, longtime sportswriter/columnist for the Springfield Republican and writer of the beloved weekly column “Hitting To All Fields” passed away at home on Monday, January 31.

Garry was born on September 3, 1931, the son of Jeremiah J. Brown, and the former Marguerite Mary Connell, and grew up in Indian Orchard. His father was a postmaster, and part-time stringer for the then Springfield Morning Union, reporting on local news, weddings, and sporting events. Young Garry accompanied his father on his news gathering assignments, and to the newspaper building to turn in copy.

After graduating from Springfield Technical High School in 1949, Garry attended American International College, where he put his early experience as a “reporter” to good use by joining the sports staff of the school paper, the “Yellow Jacket”, along with future colleagues such as Jerry Radding, Gene McCormick, and Gerry Finn.

While at AIC, Garry was offered a job on the Springfield Morning Union sports staff, where sports editor Dutch Robbins taught him to “keep it short and make it sparkle”. He had left AIC before graduating to pursue his new career, but returned following encouragement by sports department colleague Joseph Napolitan, and aided by the typing skills of his young wife, Mary, completed his degree while working full-time. Garry covered local and high school sports for many years, and had an encyclopedic knowledge of the Western Mass. sports scene and the athletes he covered, many of whom went on to success as pro athletes, or in other business/professional endeavors, and he made many lifetime friends in the process.

In addition to covering local sports, Garry was a Red Sox beat writer, covering the 1967 Impossible Dream team, as well as the 1975 and 1986 World Series teams, all of which lost the series in seven games. He finally had the chance to cover Red Sox World Championship titles in 2004 and 2007. He also spent a few seasons later in his career as a football writer on the Patriots beat. A hockey lover since the days of Eddie Shore and the Eastern States Coliseum rink rats, Garry enjoyed covering the Springfield American Hockey League teams. His final assignment as a reporter on deadline was covering the Springfield Thunderbirds.

After officially retiring from the newspaper in 2009, he continued writing “Hitting To All Fields”, and his Saturday local sports columns, as well as occasional features, as a contributing writer. His remarkable career in the newspaper business spanned the days of “hot type” produced on linotype machines, into the computer age.

Professional accolades and other recognition were plentiful in Garry’s career, and included placement in the Associated Press Best Sports Stories of 1983, the William F. Keating Memorial Sports Award (1994), the Harold “Kid” Gore Award (1998), the 2004 Dave O’Hara Award from the Boston Chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America, the 2007 Anthony L. Brown Fruits of Labor Award from the Big Will Express Athletic Club, and induction in the inaugural class of the Western Mass. Baseball Hall of Fame in 2014. As an advocate for inclusion of women in the Basketball Hall of Fame, he was recognized by the local chapter of the National Organization for Women. He also received an honorary doctorate degree from his alma mater, American International College, which he was proud to receive on the same day that granddaughter Sonia graduated from Smith College in 2014.

Apart from his professional accomplishments, Garry loved his family most, and cherished family gatherings with children, and grandchildren returning home from near and far. Having married a Polish girl from Chicopee, he especially enjoyed the traditional Polish Christmas Eve gathering, Wigilia, where he would always tell the story of how he called that girl one Christmas Eve and asked her on a date as she was leaving for her family’s Wigilia.

He leaves his wife of 69 years, and the love of his life, Mary (Bukowski) Brown, who he met as a student at AIC when they were assigned seats alphabetically next to each other, his daughter Melissa of Wilbraham, son Peter and daughter-in-law Meng-Shiou Shieh of Amherst, son Paul of West Springfield, and loving grandchildren Sonia, Conlan, Kanya, and Rayna. He is also mourned by his sad, furry friend, Cookie The Shih Tzu. Garry was predecease by his two brothers, Joseph Brown and Gerald "Jeb" Brown and his sister, Angele St. Pierre.

Funeral services will be private, and the family requests that memorial donations be made to the Jimmy Fund of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

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