Farwell Tilden Brown, 99, died of old age on September 1, 2010, in the Northcrest Retirement Community Health Care Center. He was born in Ames on December 17, 1910, to Mary Tilden Brown and Harry Farwell Brown. On July 7, 1940, he married Ruth Ann Mosher in Urbana, Illinois.

He graduated from Ames High School in 1929. After his freshman year at Oberlin College in Ohio, he returned to Ames where he earned a BS in Agricultural Economics from Iowa State College in 1934. For many years he operated the Brown Insurance Agency in Ames with his father. In the early sixties, he traveled as a fundraiser for the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Interlochen, Michigan, and then joined the Iowa Highway Commission where he was a real estate appraiser in the Right of Way Department until his retirement in 1976.

He devoted his retirement years to travelling with Ruth and to researching and writing about the history of Ames. Many of his stories appeared in The Ames Tribune, and he published four books on the history of Ames. Ames, the Early Years in Word and Picture (1993) is a collection of stories that highlight the first seventy-five years of the town's life. In 1999 he published Ames in Word and Picture, Book Two: Further Tales and Personal Memories. Ames in Word and Picture, Book Three: Tales from Two Old-timers, includes writings of his grandfather, Kendrick Wade Brown, as well as eighteen more stories of his own. Ames, Iowa: A Ride Through Town on theDinkey, a popular souvenir picture album for which he wrote the cut-lines, is part of the Images of America series.

In 1981 he served as the first president of the Ames Heritage Association, now the Ames Historical Society, and spearheaded their first project, the restoration and preservation of the Hoggatt School, the first schoolhouse in Ames.

In 1986 Mayor Goodland proclaimed Farwell the "Official Historian for the City of Ames." He contributed his lifetime collection of photographs, The Farwell T. Brown Photographic Archive, to the Ames Public Library, which in 1990 awarded him the "Trustee Award" for significant contributions to the library and the community.
The Library's Farwell T. Brown Auditorium was dedicated on March 1, 1998.


Proceeding Farwell in death were his sister Josephine Leffler; daughter Elva Louise Brown, who died in 1941 of complications of Downs Syndrome; and son Roger Mosher Brown, who died of bile duct cancer on March 29th of this year. Farwell is survived by his beloved wife Ruth of seventy years and by two daughters and a son and their spouses: Mary Howard and husband Bob Bataille of Ames; Kendrick Brown and wife Bernie of Raleigh, North Carolina; and Catherine Tkacz and husband Michael of Spokane, Washington. His grandchildren are David (and Linda) Howard, of Lawrence, Kansas; Paul (and Tiffani) Howard, of Portland, Oregon; Zach Brown, who is serving in Afghanistan; and Jessie (and Daniel) Sellner, of Charlotte, North Carolina. His great-grandchildren are Lindsey, Matthew, Nicholas, Emma, Charlie, and Jack Howard. He is also remembered by Brent, Erik, Brielle and Ben Bataille.

The family requests no flowers. Farwell's favorite charities were the Ames Historical Association and Youth and Shelter Services.

The memorial service will be Tuesday Sept. 7, at 1:30 PM at United Church of Christ - Congregational 6th and Kellogg in Ames.

Online condolences may be sent to www.grandonfuneralandcremationcare.com.

Grandon Funeral and Cremation Care is assisting the family.