Clifford W. Brown, 92, a retired professor of philosophy who had served as a deacon at Our Mother of Consolation Church in Chestnut Hill, died June 8 of congestive heart failure at his home in Lower Gwynedd.
Dr. Brown was ordained a deacon in the Roman Catholic Church in 1988 and assisted at services at Our Mother of Consolation until 2009.
Dr. Brown was the founding chairperson of the philosophy department at Rutgers University, Camden, and taught in the department for 49 years, retiring in 2009 as professor emeritus. In 1968 he received the Lindback Foundation Award for distinguished teaching.
In the 1950s, while pursuing his doctoral degree at Bryn Mawr College, he taught at Springside School in Chestnut Hill. He received both his bachelor's and master's degrees in history from the University of Pennsylvania.
He was the author of “Leibnitz and Strawson: A New Essay in Descriptive Metaphysics.”
Dr. Brown spent many summers at Keewaydin Camp in Vermont as a trip leader and became a camp legend as the leader of the first canoe trip to Algonquin State Park in Canada. An an avid hiker, he climbed 41 of the 46 peaks of the Adirondack Mountains during his lifetime.
He is survived by his wife, the former Joanne Obermiller; sons Joseph Obermiller and Adam; daughters Jenny Schemwell and Amy Williams, and three grandchildren.
A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated June 12 at Our Mother of Consolation Church with interment at Valley Forge Memorial Gardens. Memorial donations may be made to Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, 2200 Kentmere Pkwy., Wilmington, DE 19806, or to Keewaydin, 950 W. Shore Road, Salisbury, VT 05769. – WF
