Andrew A. Brown

Andrew Allan Brown, born June 22, 1954, in Covington, KY to John Francis and Lois Marie Brown, passed peacefully July 27, 2025, surrounded by family. He leaves a void in many lives that will not easily be filled.

Andy found meaning in family, work, and friends. He was a home builder and remodeler who modestly described himself as a carpenter. He was a man of wit, good humor, and charm, but also private. He had an eager spirit for adventure and was always ready to provide a helping hand to family and neighbors. He was loyal. And he was a golfer.

Andy was brought up in Mt. Lookout and Hyde Park with his brother and two sisters, attended Christ the King and St. Mary's churches, and was educated in Cincinnati public schools. He was a graduate of Walnut Hills High School and a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Cincinnati in finance.

During his high school years, 1967 to 1972, Andy was a 4-year alumnus of Camp Voyageur, an adventure camp for boys featuring canoe camping in the boundary waters of Northern Minnesota. He took two extended bike and camping trips: a 10-day ride with his brother through KY, WV, and OH in 1970 and a solo, 6-week ride through Ireland and Northern Ireland in 1971 when he was 17.

During his gap years between high school and college, Andy developed skills in residential construction and leadership as the foreman of a framing crew. He met Don Suter, a fellow carpenter and friend who, in 1990, would help Andy build his first home on Keystone Drive. These were also the years of motorcycles, offroad motocross, and speedboat racing.

During his college years, fall 1974 through 1977, Andy worked with his dad as a research analyst for John F. Brown Company, an airport consulting firm, and he apprenticed in airport management programs at Las Vegas and Phoenix airports. At UC, he met Mike Ricketts who would become a lifelong friend and golfing partner.

He also made a major career decision that he would not join his dad in his airport consulting business because of extensive travel demands that would take him away from the family he hoped to have someday.

Instead, Andy saw a future for himself in home building. Based on his market analysis, Houston, Texas was the place be, not knowing that the city's booming growth would have a significant downturn over the next decade.

Andy moved to Houston in 1978, soon after college, and signed on as a carpenter with Gordon Construction, where he worked under foreman Delbert Fletcher. He quit Gordon later that year to form his own construction company, Commissioned Builders, Inc., and Mr. Fletcher joined him as the new company's foreman. "He was a smart fellow who didn't mind work. The customers liked him. And he did really well with it," said Mr. Fletcher.

Andy and Dianna Marie Collins, a 1974 graduate of the Bethesda School of Nursing, married in 1978 at Hyde Park United Methodist Church. They had four children: Collin and Nichole born in Houston, and Allison and Evan, born in Cincinnati following their return to the city in 1986.

Back in Cincinnati, Andy joined Mike Ricketts in the mortgage banking business and Dianna continued work as a nurse as she had in Houston. The couple divorced in 2003.

In 1994, Andy formed Keystone Builders and resumed work in home construction and remodeling. In 1998, Tom Buelow signed on to work with Andy for a 6-month stint but worked 15 years instead. "I liked the work," said Below, "but I really liked working with Andy. I think the world of him."

Keystone focused on additions and remodels but also did new homes and framing jobs, often with the help of Andy's oldest son, Collin, who had become a skilled carpenter in his own right.

Hoping to start a new chapter in his life, Andy entered the dating scene with the help of his daughters, Nichole and Allison, who coached him on the art of writing a personal profile for an online dating site. His hook was baited with the tagline that read, "Dating dinosaur wants to evolve." Never in his wildest dreams could he imagine who might take the bait or how he might evolve.

As luck or fate or divine intervention might have it, Andy found Barbara Jo Bracken DeLong, or Barb found Andy online. Telephone conversations ensued and were followed by a "lunch date" at O'Charley's in Dayton on July 20, 2003. They talked for three hours, shared photos of their children, and made plans for their next date-to play golf. Barb found in Andy a man with a good smile and a quick wit; who was well-spoken, inquisitive, and down-to-earth; and whose honesty and professionalism reminded her of her dad.

Before long, they were "smitten." Their mutual attraction led to mutual cooperation reviewing architectural drawings for a new house on Keystone that Andy had planned to build for himself starting in August. The length and width of the deck is perhaps the most notable of Barb's suggestions.

Barb and her older brother, Dan, were raised in Berea, Kentucky where their family has deep roots. Barb followed a 35-year career in elementary school education using her undergraduate and graduate degrees from Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond. Dan followed a career in medicine after serving as a medic in the Vietnam war. Barb taught in the Dayton area where she and her first husband raised his two sons from a prior marriage and their two daughters, Stephanie and Amanda.

Andy and Barb married July 22, 2006, at Zion Lutheran Church ELCA in Dayton. After her retirement from the Tecumseh Local School District in 2008, Barb left Dayton and moved into their Keystone Drive house and helped to support the Keystone Builders enterprise with office work and field work.

Barb was instrumental in creating a harmonious, blended family. She made their house on Keystone Drive come alive with many holiday and birthday celebrations for their children, stepchildren, and eventually grandchildren.

Andy was the family handyman for their blended family, often with Barb's help, regardless of whether they lived close or far away. He was also a "street husband" who made himself available to neighbors with house maintenance or repair needs. "It's just what he did," said Barb.

Beth, the youngest of the four Brown siblings, lives with complex disabilities in the care of St. Joseph Home in Sharonville and is a daily participant in SJH's Adult Day Program in Blue Ash. Over the last 11 years, Andy and Barb, working with Andy's sister Kate and her husband Phil, have generously contributed their time and skills to this day program with the goal of making the outdoors accessible and engaging for the special needs of day care participants like Beth and for their caregivers and the staff.

As an expression of gratitude for the many fond memories, Andy also returned several times to Camp Voyageur with his children to do various maintenance and renovation projects for the camp.

Andy and Barb also liked to travel, and their favorite travel companions were Kate and Phil. In 2008, they celebrated Barb's retirement and Kate and Phil's 30th anniversary with a three-week trip to Italy. The four vacationed in Paris and Normandy with Allison, and in Montana with Collin. They spent time in England and Amsterdam; house-boated on the Trent-Severn Waterway after visiting Algonquin Provincial Park in Canada; and explored Arches, Bryce, and Zion national parks in Utah.

Andy is survived by his wife Barb; children Jesse Collin, Nichole Marie Small (Michael), Allison Rae, and Evan Andrew (Olga); grandchildren (Stella Jane, Greta Kate, and Andrew Phillip); stepdaughters Stephanie Place (Joel) and Mandy Gagnon (Jon); step-grandchildren (Lizzie and Gabrielle); brother Mike (Mary); sisters Katie Brown (Phil Obermiller) and Beth Brown; and a number of nieces and nephews.

Visitation is scheduled for 10 a.m. and funeral services for 11 a.m. on Saturday August 16, 2025, at Lutheran Church of the Resurrection ELCA, 1950 Nagel Road in Anderson Township.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Hospice of Cincinnati, 4310 Cooper Rd, Cincinnati, OH 45242; to St. Joseph Home, 10722 Wyscarver Rd, Cincinnati, OH 45241; or to Lutheran Church of the Resurrection "Hunger" Drive, 1950 Nagel Rd, Cincinnati, OH 45255.