Another Marble Collector Passes..... Stan "the Marble Man" Brown

zaboo · November 27, 2006

we just got the very sad news that Stan Brown was killed in an auto accident yesterday.

anyone that collected marbles or went to shows here in the west, knew Stan brown. He loved the marbles and the people as much as anyone could. he shared his enthusiasm with children and adults alike.

I have some pictures of Stan in a file somewhere, I will find and post tomorrow. Children knew Stan as 'the marble man'. with his top hat, infectious smile, and specialty marbles, he was always surrounded by kids. And he loved to teach kids how to play!

He will be deeply missed.

E&D

Marbleholic · November 27, 2006

This is horrible news. Stan was always a wonderful part of the shows in the west. He will be missed.

D & J

tankgrrl29 · November 27, 2006

very sad news...i think i remember seeing his picture from some shows. what a shame for his family and friends.

Al Oregon · November 27, 2006

That is sad! I visited him every time I was up in Astoria, Oregon. He was such an enthusiastic person and reaaly got kids into marbles. He had local tournaments, was at flea markets and other events besides his own shop in Astoria, dedicated to marbles (probably one of the few in the US). He was working on a marble alphabet game last time I talked to him - kind of along the lines of scrabble and similar games. He will be missed by many. Here's an article from the local paper last Spring. I couldn't pull the picture from the article so just added one form the Portland Marble Show a couple of years ago (he loved the kids).

Everyday people:

Astoria man takes his shot introducing the game of marbles to kids

By KARA HANSEN

The Daily Astorian

Stan Brown’s pockets rattle with the sound of a pastime he never experienced as a child.

But he’s making up for lost time, and hoping he can bring some fun to children who may never have played the ancient-rooted game of marbles.

“The marble business is about kids,” Brown said at the downtown Astoria marble store he opened less than two years ago. His own kids are all grown up. “It’s about encouraging interaction and pulling them away from computers a little bit.”

Until he was 46, Brown worked in the moving business, most recently in Spokane, Wash. But he decided to retire and go back to college, where he studied environmental science. He picked up a few marbles at one point and began to play with them, gaining interest from fellow students and fostering his love for a game he didn’t play when he was younger.

“What did you not receive as a child that you want to give back as an adult? I want to teach young people marble play,” Brown said.

Eventually, it became clear what he should do. He had already fallen in love with Astoria, because it reminded him of a small-scale San Francisco, where he was born. He opened Marble Mouse House and has been promoting marble play ever since.

It’s an “earth-friendly” sport that doesn’t cost much to play, he said. “No gear required.”

And it lends itself well to wider horizons. Brown found that he loved the concept of painting and screen-printing on marbles, of fixing a permanent image to curved glass. He now has hundreds of the tiny works of art at his store, thanks to help from Doug Anderson, who he said pioneered the technique.

He also likes to fish and was an umpire for many years, an activity he’d like to continue, if he has the time.

“It’s hard to find time in between,” said Brown, who spends any weekend he can at Astoria’s Sunday Market and at the Saturday Market in Ilwaco, Wash., where he may soon host a weekly tournament. He’ll also lead games at the Astoria-Warrenton Crab and Seafood Festival at the end of April.

Pockets rattling with the little balls of glass, Brown often hands out “lucky marbles” to passersby, whether they’re adults or children.

He hopes people of all ages can find something to enjoy in the pastime, which dates back to ancient Egyptian and Roman games.

“I’ve seen grandparents sitting at card tables shooting marbles with children,” Brown said. “I’ve played marbles with kids ages 3 and up ... Anyone can do it.”

— Kara Hansen

zaboo · November 27, 2006

thanks for that link al. but I cant access it, darn!

here's a couple pictures as promised. these were taken after the Seattle show, 2004.

playing with marbles with hubby and julie... he was so dang much fun to be around.

Scoop · November 28, 2006

Damn.... I'm so sorry to hear... I didn't know Stan, but I know what his friends are feeling and it's a tough thing....

It's one thing for a person to grow old and pass on to an affliction of old age. But, to be still so vibrant and taken away, makes it very hard to deal with...

Wasn't Stan in a movie or video of some sort?? I remember seeing something about a person being in the background of a scene, who seems to fit his description???

Al, I'm being told that I have to be a subscriber to access the article... Is it possible for you to download it?

Al Oregon · November 28, 2006

I edited my post to show the article.

Scoop · November 28, 2006

Thanks Al....... He sounds wonderful... What a cruel loss..........

wvrons · November 28, 2006

SAD News,once again. Sounds like my kind of marble person.

I LOVE MARBLES · November 28, 2006

I met Stan The Marble Man at the first marble show I attended Sea-Tac 1996, immediately thought, what a character! I didn't get to know him until Raelyn's marble dinner, three years ago. Stan & I talked marbles, politics, smoked a few phatties, and I traded him a doubie, for some Snoopy marbles. I love marble-people, and I'll miss Stan, as we shared more in common, than just being marble men. Real sorry to hear this bad news.

Scott

Al Oregon · November 29, 2006

Here's the article from The Daily Astorian on the accident:

11/28/2006 11:23:00 AM

LORI ASSA — The Daily Astorian file

'Marble Guy' dies in slippery accident in Washington

Stanley Brown, marble shop owner in Astoria, gave away free marbles to show his kindness and give people luck

By KARA HANSEN

The Daily Astorian

A 64-year-old Astoria man known to many as the "Marble Guy" died Saturday when his pickup slipped off an icy Washington road and plummeted into a ditch, settling upside down in several feet of water.

Stanley M. "Stan" Brown was headed south on the Astoria-Naselle bypass with his fiancée, Roshelle Jones, 41, of Longview, Wash., when he lost control of his vehicle near Bean Creek.

He was pronounced dead at the scene. Family members said Jones remained in a hospital Monday after suffering hip and neck injuries.

The owner of a marble shop in downtown Astoria, Brown had become a local fixture of sorts since moving to the area several years ago. He manned booths at Astoria's Sunday Market and at the Saturday Market in Ilwaco, Wash. He even appeared in the locally filmed "Ring II" during a market scene.

But sales weren't Brown's priority, family members said Monday. Whether at his store, at a market or walking along a downtown sidewalk, he insisted on handing out "lucky marbles" to anyone he passed. Brown's pockets rattled with the tiny glass spheres, and his store was filled with them, some also made of clay, metal, resin, rubber and wood.

His grandson Stuart, 16, of Naselle, said Brown likely gave away more marbles than he sold.

"He wanted to give away a million lucky marbles before he went," the teenager said. "I think he oversucceeded."

The "lucky marbles" offered Brown a chance "to show kindness and to give people luck, to get them back into marbles," said Stuart Brown. He often helped teach people to play marbles at his grandfather's booths, but the two also enjoyed road trips together through Washington and "adventures" in the forest, where they would watch birds, examine insects and discuss astronomy.

Stan Brown also liked to fish and was an umpire for many years. But life wasn't always so happy-go-lucky for the marble enthusiast.

Family members said Brown, a native of San Francisco, was a rowdy youth, earning the nickname "The Jumper" after a bar brawl or two in Fresno, Calif. He satisfied some of his early wanderlust by hitchhiking and by riding the rails - he was a skilled box-car jumper, family said.

Those behaviors bowed toward free love as he grew into adulthood. Brown eventually went through two marriages, raising a daughter, two sons, two stepsons and a stepdaughter. He started refinishing antique furniture before moving to Spokane, Wash., where he opened a moving business. But some of his younger years' unhealthy habits lingered.

Overcoming heavy drinking gave Brown a lot of pride, said his stepfather, Max Jones.

"He had a complete change of life when he quit drinking," Jones said. "It worked for him, and he'd tell other people about it, too. He liked to tell people, 'That's what you've got to do.'"

Camille Brown, a registered nurse in Naselle and the eldest of his three children, agreed her father was a strong advocate of 12-step programs, noting a memorial service will likely be held soon at an Alcoholics Anonymous club in Washington. But he helped many people throughout his life, she added.

"He'd offer food to the homeless," she said. "My dad never passed judgment on a single soul. He saw the love in everybody that passed his life."

After conquering his drinking problem, Brown, then in his 40s, attended community college in Seattle, where he studied environmental science. It was there he also rekindled an interest in marbles, teaching younger students about the game while selling tiny glass globes painted with Earths.

Those embellished orbs were among his most treasured. Using a technique that he attributed to Doug Anderson, some of his favorite painted and screen-printed marbles sit in the back of his shop, a miniature marble museum, which he opened when he moved to Astoria.

Joyce Compere, manager of Astoria Sunday Market, said Brown was also a strong supporter of local youths.

"Stan was remarkable with young people in this community," said Compere. "Young people who didn't fit in - he made a place for them; he put out his hand and didn't lose patience with them. He employed them, giving them job skills, social skills."

She said she hired two young men through Brown for odd jobs. And she laughed recounting his initial proposal for a market booth, which she said took her off-guard.

"I said, 'Stan, I don't think marbles are a 21st-century product.' He said, 'No, just give me a chance and we'll have fun with this. We'll get kids involved,'" Compere explained. "And he did."

She said plenty of lucky marbles scattered throughout her drawers will help to remember Brown.

"He was quirky, and funny, loving and concerned about the Earth and the people on it," Compere said. "I will miss him terribly."

Brown often visited family in Spokane, in Rosburg, Wash., and in Naselle. He was headed back to Astoria from one of those gatherings when his truck crashed just after Thanksgiving.

When family members ventured out to the site about two miles from their home to place flowers in his memory, they found that Brown had left behind some of his familiar possessions.

In the ditch near Bean Creek where the 64-year-old perished, his grandson spotted a sack filled with little balls of glass.

"I found some of his marbles," Stuart Brown said.

zaboo · November 29, 2006

al, do you have an address where we could send cards?

Al Oregon · November 30, 2006

There has not been an obituary posted in the paper yet. If one is, I will post what it says for remembrances. The only address that I have is for his shop. I would guess the family would be picking up his mail from there or have it forwarded. That address is: Stan Brown, Marble Mouse, 354 9th Street, Astoria, OR 97103.

Al Oregon · December 2, 2006

Still no obituary but here was a letter someone wrote to the paper:

Letter: Memorable man

The following letter was received by the newspaper after word of the death in a motor vehicle accident Saturday of Stanley M. "Stan" Brown, 64, known to many in the region as the "Marble Guy."

We've only been here just shy of two years, but habits and routines are already firmly in place for our family. Without even knowing it, they began that first weekend we were here when we went to the Sunday Farmer's Market and my two daughters discovered the joys of getting a free lucky marble.

As the spring and summer wore on, I could always count on the girls to make the walk into town (about 20 blocks each way), if a stop by the marble shop was on the route. There, my girls could choose a marble out of a bin placed by the door if the shop was closed, or out of the Marble Guy's outstretched hand if the shop was open. If the latter was the case, we also went in, where he taught my eldest that a lot of ordinary objects could be marble stands. At 7, she found this endlessly fascinating, and soon things began to disappear around the house that turned up later as a marble display.

When the bin wasn't left outside, my girls would look through the flower bed in front, and there, among the oversized wooden fork and spoon, would be scattered small glass treasures. After my son was born, the Marble Guy made sure he had a shooter with his name, suspended on a chain, to keep for him later. We must have spent 45 minutes in the shop, sorting through the Brittanies and Barbaras to find that one elusive Benjamin.

Even when we were driving through town on our way somewhere else, we might be greeted with colorful pastel chalk swirls on the sidewalk, or his sandwich board. He always kept that corner interesting.

In fact, he kept Astoria more interesting, right up to Halloween, when, instead of candy, he stood at his door and handed out, of course, marbles. We talked again about how he should start a marble club at the shop to teach kids the rules. As I turned to leave, moving on to more trick-or-treating with my children, he stopped me and stretched out his hand, offering a marble.

"Here, Mom. Take a lucky marble for yourself."

CARRIE ANK

Astoria

zaboo · December 2, 2006

thanks so much Al!!

very much appreciated! Stan touched the lives of absolutely everyone he met. I am sure of that now.

d.

Al Oregon · January 19, 2007

Here's the posts on Pete's Land of Marbles Board about Stan some were from non-collectors that he gave marbles to and knew in other ways.

West Coast 'Marble Man' passes on

We lost a marble friend this past weekend. Here the article from the Daily Astorian (Astoria, Oregon). I would vist Stan each time I was up in Astoria. He will be missed.

11/28/2006 11:23:00 AM

The Daily Astorian file