Phillip Wilson Tate Brown
Phillip Wilson Tate Brown of Santa Barbara, California passed away at home on Sunday, November 19th, 2017, at 86 years of age.
Tate was born in New York City on January 21, 1931. Son of Aralene (Polly) and Phillip Brown and brother of Anthony Brown, Tate was raised in Scarsdale, N.Y. He graduated from The Hotchkiss School in 1949 and Yale University in 1953, where he received a B.A. in English.
He was a proud member of the United States Marine Corps; he graduated in 1955 as a 2nd lieutenant after completing basic training at Parris Island, South Carolina and additional combat training at the Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.
Tate worked as an executive for the BBDO advertising agency in New York City from 1956 until the late 1960s. He then turned his passion for landscaping into a garden center business by opening and operating the Washington Nursery in Washington, CT from 1972 to 1980. He lived in Salisbury, CT from 1979 to 1995, when he moved to Arizona. In 2007, he moved to Santa Barbara, CA.
Tate had a deep interest in and love for Native American culture and artwork. While living in Washington, he helped to found and direct the American Indian Archeological Institute. He also assembled a significant collection of Northwest Coast Indian material. Tate was involved in many philanthropic and volunteer activities, including helping to found the Churchill School in New York City, chairing the board of trustees at the Rumsey Hall School in Washington, CT, assisting the Hotchkiss admissions department as an alumni representative, and serving as the alumni liaison for the athletic department at Yale.
Tate spent his summers primarily at the Maidstone Club in East Hampton, New York and the Columbus Beach Club in Indian River, Michigan. An avid fly fisherman, he also passed many happy hours on the stream of the Little Sturgeon Trout Club in Indian River and on the banks of the Tabusintac River in New Brunswick, Canada.
He is predeceased by his first wife Helene Kinnucan (1977), his second wife Nancy Burke (2006), and his son Monte Tate Brown (2015) of Montecito, CA.
In addition to his brother Tony Brown of East Hampton, Tate is survived by a daughter, Daryl Brown Uber (Bruce) of New York City; another son, Dwyer Phillip Brown (Nancy Reynolds) of Saint Louis; a daughter-in-law, Merryl Goodman Brown of Montecito, CA; a stepdaughter, Nicole Barry; and four grandsons, Dryden and Winslow Brown of Montecito, and Anson and Graham Brown of Saint Louis.
Gifts in Tate’s honor can be made to Visiting Nurse and Hospice Care of Santa Barbara. Please call Brittany Avila Wazny at 805.690.6290 for arrangements.
A memorial service will take place at the Rumsey Hall School in Washington, CT on Monday, January 8th at 10:30am.