Duane R. Brown, 89, passed away peacefully on September 14, 2026, at 5:31 p.m. at the VITAS Hospice House, surrounded by the love of his family, following a long journey with Alzheimer’s disease.

Duane lived a life defined by faith, service, education, and an enduring devotion to his family.

Born May 9, 1937, Duane began a lifetime of service while still a young man. At the age of 17, he enlisted in the United States Air Force, serving overseas in France before completing his military service with an Honorable Discharge. He later reflected that the military helped instill values that remained with him throughout his life: duty, honor, responsibility, loyalty, and personal integrity.

In 1958, Duane married Ethel Mardell White, the woman he would describe as his best friend, lifelong companion, and the anchor of their family. Together they raised three children, Susan, Kenneth, and Michael, and built a marriage and partnership centered on family, Christian faith, education, and service to others.

Duane’s calling led him into both ministry and education. He served as a pastor and counselor and ultimately became a professor of psychology and teacher education at Southeastern College, later Southeastern University. His work as an educator extended far beyond lectures and textbooks. He cared about the individual student and regarded teaching as an opportunity to shape lives as well as minds. Students captured that quality in a statement that stayed with him throughout his life: “Brother Brown, you don’t just teach courses, you teach students!” That philosophy characterized much of Duane’s life.

His ministry and educational work eventually took Duane and Ethel far beyond the United States. Together they spent more than a decade serving in Colombia. Duane taught and helped administer the Bible Institute in Medellín and later taught at and directed Central Bible School in Bogotá. Their years there combined the two great vocational threads of his life—Christian ministry and education—and reflected the partnership in service that Duane and Ethel shared throughout their marriage.

After returning to the United States, Duane continued teaching, counseling, ministering, and investing in the lives of others. He retired from full-time teaching in 2003, but retirement did not mean the end of his ministry. After Duane and Ethel began spending time at Unicoi Springs Camp Resort near Helen, Georgia, he began preaching there and eventually served as the campground pastor. Even well into retirement, preparing sermons, teaching Scripture, and caring for people remained part of his life. In 2010 alone, he delivered 65 sermons there.

Duane was also a lifelong student himself. He maintained an extraordinary appetite for reading and learning, often reading 40 to 50 books in a year. His curiosity ranged well beyond his professional fields, and he continued learning throughout his life.

That desire to teach and preserve what he had learned eventually resulted in his book, ChangePoints: Significant Transitions in My Life. He wrote it not primarily for publication or recognition, but as a legacy for his children and grandchildren—a record of the experiences, decisions, people, faith, and turning points that shaped the man he became.

Duane wore many titles during his 89 years: Air Force veteran, husband, father, grandfather, pastor, missionary, professor, teacher, counselor, author, and friend. Yet those roles shared a common purpose. Whether he was serving his country, standing behind a pulpit, teaching in a classroom, counseling a student, working at a Bible school thousands of miles from home, or caring for his family, Duane devoted his life to serving others.

The final years of his life were marked by Alzheimer’s disease, which gradually took away many of the abilities and memories that had defined his independence. It could not, however, erase the life he had already lived or the influence he had already placed into the lives of others. His family remained beside him throughout that journey, caring for him and ensuring that he remained surrounded by the people who knew and loved the man behind the disease.

Duane was preceded in death by his beloved wife, Ethel, in 2023. After a lifetime spent together—in marriage, parenthood, ministry, education, missions, and service—they will now rest together.

He leaves behind his children, Susan, Kenneth, and Michael; his grandchildren and extended family; former students and colleagues; members of the congregations and communities he served; and countless others whose lives crossed his during nearly nine decades.

For his family, Duane’s legacy cannot be contained in a list of positions held, degrees earned, sermons preached, students taught, or places served. It is found in the people he influenced and in the values he tried to pass to the generations that followed him.

Faith. Family. Education. Service.

Those were not simply things Duane believed in. They were how he lived.

And after a lifetime of service, Duane R. Brown will be laid to rest with Ethel at the Cape Canaveral National Cemetery, together once again.

Duane’s favorite passage of scripture reflected the purpose to which he devoted so much of his life. “He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ.” Colossians 1:28 NIV