GOING HOME APRIL1955

Mesa, Arizona. To day was absolutely a gorgeous day. It is Sunday March 15, 2009. It is cloudless under a deep blue sky with a soft refreshing breeze gently blowing and the temperature in the middle 70’s. It made me think of so many good things that we had done to-gether as a family when you were growing up.

Beginning with Douglas and Charisse during June and July, 1955 in Alaska, on week ends, we would get in our brand new blue and white Chev and drive to one of the lakes near by. The water was cold and crystal clear. You could see, standing even from the shore, thousands of huge red salmon which had spawned and had come home to die. It looked to me that the fishing would be easy but you could see them swim up to the bait and just look at it. It seemed like the only thing that they wanted to do was wait to die.

Charisse was born in the hospital at Ladd Air Force Base, in Fairbanks on February 7, 1954. It was 60 degrees below zero, the coldest night of the year, when I was given a message that Melva Lee was in labor and that Lynn Holist, our branch president, had taken Melva Lee to the hospital. I was at Eielson AFB, about 24 miles South of Anchorage. I was there because I had drawn a duty assignment that required me to be there that day. I was excused from duty so that I could be with Melva Lee. It was so cold that I had to creep along in the car for a mile or two until the tires could warm up and run smoothly. When I arrived at the hospital Melva Lee had delivered a beautiful baby girl. Her name to be? Charisse.

Picture of us standing on a shore with Douglas, Charisse and the Clarks( Lena and John)
Picture of North Pole sign

In April of 1955 we finished our tour of duty in Alaska. We had sold our trailer home at North Pole (*), and the lot that it was on(**). We had put our new blue and white Chevrolet on a flat car and would not see it again until we arrived in Seattle. We had received our orders to return by train and boat to Seattle, pick up our car there and drive to San Jose, California to receive our discharge. The trip home was exciting. We rode the train from Fairbanks to Anchorage. The railroad ran Southward out of Fairbanks and West of Mount McKinley before arriving in Anchorage. The scenery was breath taking. Even though it was April the landscape was still white with snow. As the train sped along we observed many mountain goats standing on the hill sides with the magnificent Mount Mckinley (***)in the background.

Mount McKinley is a little over 20,000ft high. It is the highest mountain in North America. During the two years that we lived in North Pole , 12 miles South of Fairbanks, several of the many mountain climbers who attempted to reach its top were injured or killed.

From Anchorage we were taken to our ship. I had never been on a big ocean going ship before so it was very interesting to see how big and organized it was. Melva Lee (Nena) had been on two large ships before so she more or less knew what to expect. In 1945, when the war ended, families of the occupation forces were permitted to live in Japan. Melva Lee, with her family, was on the first shipload of dependants to go to Japan. They returned home a couple of years later.

Our room was small but very comfortable. Douglas and Charisse had a fun time looking out the big round window in our room. The top deck had a dance floor and exercise room that was the full width of the deck. Douglas and Charisse had a great time running back and forth on the floor as the boat rolled with the waves.








As we approached Seattle the outside air was about 35 degrees but it seemed wonderful compared to the 10 to 40 degees below zero that we were accustomed to.

Melva Lee had said several times that she was excited to know that the road to San Francisco went through the red wood forest; that she had always wanted to see it. By the time we entered the forest she had gone sound a-sleep. She was pregnant with Shelly and could not wake up.

We were discharged at a base just South of San Francisco and spent the night there. The next day we drove all of the way to my parent’s home in Queen Creek, Arizona. It was so good to see them again!

This is a good place to break so I will write you the next time.

Submitted by Ralph G. Brown




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The airwaves are heavy with reports of war and rumors of war. Much of the news to-day is pessimistic. This might be a good time to let my family know what some of my political views are. Perhaps this may not be interesting to my generation but I hope that, in time, it will be interesting to coming generations

As members of the Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints (Church) we have so many blessings that we begin to take some of them for granted. When I step into our Ward Chapel I feel that I am standing in a holy place. A place that is secure from the turmoil of the world. I hear the quite words, “Ye shall stand in holy places” and “If ye are prepared ye shall not fear”. I leave Sacrament meetings with a feeling of comfort and thanks giving.

I am grateful for the priesthood through which God passes to us the authority to act in his name. I am amazed that there are so many good people who do not seem to grasp the doctrine that God does not recognize the acts of men unless they have been authorized and executed his way.

The scriptures are clear about these days. In the beginning, before the world was, we approved the plan of happiness or the plan of salvation. We voted to be governed by the law(s) of free agency. Lucifer rebelled against this idea and succeeded in convincing one third of the hosts of heaven to follow him and now he continues to collect followers in this life.

I am grateful for the constitution and for the protection that it provides to the law of free agency.
Political winds tell us that every where there are persons, in and outside of our government and political action committees who are trying hard to kill, little by little, laws that represent free agency. I certainly will not accept such a government and I pray that there are enough of us to defeat such an attempt.

I realize that I have given you only a thumbnail look at the forces that have formed my political philosophy but I hope that it gives you some idea of how I will vote in coming elections.

Submitted By Ralph G Brown

Introduction To The Ralph Brown Journal

Chulie & Kenya Ralph G Brown

February 1, 2009







The "Ralph Brown Journal" is the second of two blogs that I have. It will be mostly personal and limited to the members of the Ralph G. and Melva Lee (Nena) Brown family and invited friends, whereas the first blog, "Valley Of The Mist" will be open to the world.

We have five children. Two sons and three daughters. Melva Lee Brown (Nena), my wife, passed away about ten years ago and our oldest son, Ralph Douglas Brown, passed away in 2000. He was only 48 years old.

Charisse Brown is our oldest daughter and lives with me in Mesa, Arizona. I have lived in this house for 38 years and Charisse has lived here for about 25 years. She is an RN and a school nurse.

Shelley Brown Riley, our second daughter, and her husband, Tracy Riley, have three children and have lived in Queen Creek for about seven years. They moved here from Portland, Oregon.

Daniel Brown moved from Mesa, AZ to Silver City, New Mexico, in 1989 and then to El Paso about two years later. They have three children, all married and all have had one child each. Daniel married a wonderful girl, Lisa Matta, in 2004. Lisa has one son. It was a second marriage for both of them.

Suzan M Brown Scott married Tom Scott in 1985 and moved to Coolidge, very soon after that. They have two children, A girl, Rachelle, a senior in high school and Thomas a sophomore in college. Neither one of them have married yet. Tom is a business partner with his Father. They own the Case-International equipment Co. in Coolidge and another equipment company in Maricopa, AZ.

Melva Lee and I were married December 27, 1951 in the Arizona Temple. We spent the first half of the fifties at Holoman Air Force Base in Alamorgordo, New Mexico and Eielson Air Force Base, just out of Fairbanks, Alaska. We returned home to Queen Creek in 1955 and soon after that was asked by Apostle Henry D Moyle to take our family to Melbourne, Florida and establish the position of administrative assistant and to take over the office of a 300,000 acre plus cattle ranch for the Church. The fifties were good to us. My first assignment was to fly to Salt Lake City to become aquainted with persons working in the accounting department and to meet the Presiding Bishopric and then to gather up the accounting records and ship them to the Ranch in Florida. This turned ot be a very interesting assignment




We returned home in Mesa about ten months early from the ranch because Dan's doctor told us to get him back into a dry climate before he could heal from an infection that he had in his throat.







The sixties turned out to be loaded with adversity for our family. We moved several times trying to get re-established and In 1969 we decided to return to Mesa. We were beaten and discouraged. However, soon after arriving back in Mesa I received an offer to go to work for Holo-met. It turned out to be a blessing. I was making a good salary again and rapidly rose to be in charge of three hollow metal factories. They were Holo-met in Mesa, Atlas Universal in San Francisco and Midland Steel just out of Oklahoma City.

Soon after being put in charge of the hollow metal factories the CEO of Chesapeake industries, who owned the hollow metal factories asked me to move to San Francisco and help move the home office from Silver Springs, Maryland to San Francisco and take over the office there. It was at a time when the Hippie movement was well established there and I had seen how corrupt they were. It seemed that they were every where. I felt that I could not put my family in that environment so I had no choice but to turn down the offer to move to San Francisco.

This will be post number one. I hope that, as time goes on, I will be able to work in interesting parts of my life history along with glances at my business knowledge, my political views, my religous views and anything that I think would be an interesting and insightful record.







Submitted by Ralph G Brown.