Sculptor And Educator David Lee Brown Of Southampton Dies August 12

Sculptor and educator David Lee Brown of Southampton, formerly of Springs, died on August 12.

Mr. Brown was born in Detroit in 1939 and graduated from Cass Tech High School. During high school, he worked as a model builder for Minoru Yamasaki, who designed the original World Trade Center in New York City. He attended North Carolina State University’s architecture program, studying with Eduardo Catalano, and pursued graduate studies in sculpture at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

After serving as the head of the design department at the Worcester Craft Center in Massachusetts, he then worked with the sculptor José de Rivera in New York City. There he settled with his wife, Andrea, whom he married in 1960. As a visiting instructor, Mr. De Rivera chose Mr. Brown to work with him on the sculpture commissioned for the United States Pavilion at the Brussels World Fair.

Professional commissions of Mr. Brown’s sculptures include large-scale installations at the Fort Lauderdale International Airport, Gimbel’s Department Store in Philadelphia, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and smaller- and medium-scale works in numerous private, corporate, and museum collections around the world. The Grace Borgenicht Gallery represented his work in New York City. Mr. Brown was a devoted and legendary design professor, teaching for more than 50 years at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, influencing thousands of students across generations.

A lover of design, architecture, materials and structures, he also consulted at the Walt Disney Imagineering studio when it was operating in Wainscott. His interests were manifold, and his hobbies ambitious. Early in his career he raced bicycles competitively. He also competed nationally as an oarsman, winning a national title with the Detroit Boat Club’s eight-man boat. In recent years he enjoyed rowing his single shell in Springs and on Mecox Bay. He was passionate about ice boating—building by hand the first DN boat he raced—and served for several years as the commodore of the Mecox Bay Ice Yacht Club. In recent years, he was an active and dedicated member of the Southampton Village Volunteer Ambulance Service.

Mr. Brown is survived by his wife, Andrea; a daughter, Victoria and husband Allan Chochinov; and a granddaughter, Bronwyn.