Snyder Family 2016 - Person Sheet
NameGary Dale Brown 
Birth21 Jun 1956, Spokane, Spokane Co., Washington
Death5 May 1985, Spokane, Spokane Co., Washington
FatherThomas Harold “Tom” Brown (1925-)
MotherAgnes Lucille Baker (1928-2011)
Notes for Gary Dale Brown
Died as a young man in a helicopter accident w/ KREM TV in Spokane. He was a photographer.
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from his Mom’s obit.: ‘a son, Gary D. Brown (who died in a helicopter accident during Bloomsday 1985 while working as chief photojournalist for KREM-TV)’
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Bloomsday facts, year-by-year - Compiled by Susan Mulvihill
May 5, 1985
Registered: 39,662
Finished: 37,736
Sculptor David Govedare creates the Bloomsday statue, “The Joy of Running Together,” in Riverfront Park. Twenty-six Olympians run. A helicopter hired by KREM-TV to cover the race crashes and kills pilot Clifford D. Richey and photojournalist Gary Brown. Men’s and women’s elite runners Paul Davies-Hale and Anne Audain win their divisions and Gary Kerr and Candace Cable-Brooks win the men’s and women’s wheelchair races.
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Gary D. Brown
Obituary
Gary D. Brown, 67, of Curtis Creek Retirement Home, formerly of New Canton, died at 11:47 p.m. Saturday (Jan. 29, 2011) in Barnes Jewish Hospital, St. Louis.
He was born March 14, 1943, in Quincy, a son of Arthur and Beulah Langfahl Brown.
Gary graduated from West Pike High School, Kinderhook, and Culver-Stockton College, Canton, Mo.
He taught in the Quincy public school system for four years. Interest in agriculture led to a career as a nutritional swine specialist for Moormans, Nutra Basics, and he retired as regional sales manager for Con-Agra.
Gary loved to sing and was well known in Pike County as an entertainer and emcee for many events.
He is survived by one son, Breck Brown (Kristin), of Wausau, Wis.; two daughters, Brenda Wade (Scott), of Springfield and Barbara Brown of San Antonio, Texas; four grandchildren, Bennett, Bergen and Brenna, of Wausau and Skylar of Springfield; and two sisters, Sandra Root and Gayanne Daugherty (Duane) of Quincy.
He was preceded in death by his parents and an infant brother, Clarence Leland Brown.
SERVICES: 1 p.m. memorial service Wednesday in the Kirgan Funeral Home, Barry, with the Rev. Judith Taylor conducting. Final disposition will be private.
MEMORIALS: Charity of donor's choice.
ARRANGEMENTS: Kirgan Funeral Home, Barry.
Condolences may be expressed online at www.whig.com.
- See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/whig/obituary.asp...sthash.8gV5VShS.dpuf
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2 killed in KREM crash
May 6, 1985
Victims known as pros to friends, co-workers
By Bill Morlin Spokane Chronicle
They died doing the jobs they loved.
Television photojournalist Gary Brown and helicopter company owner Cliff Richey were lifting off under a bright blue sky Sunday to film the Bloomsday race from the air.
Fiery tragedy struck in the parking lot of KREM-TV when the rotor blade of the Hughes 500D helicopter struck a television tower guy wire, about 60 feet off the ground.
It was the first tragic event associated with the nine-year history of Bloomsday.
Richey, a highly decorated Vietnam copter pilot, was a fill-in for Dale McCormick, who flies Chopper 2, owned by Price Airmotive.
“I was set up to fly it, early on, about three weeks ago,” said McCormick of the Bloomsday assignment.
McCormick, 38, said he was grounded by a flight surgeon who had prescribed a medication for a skin infection. On Friday, the TV station made arrangements for Richey’s company, Spokane Helicopter Service, to handle the assignment.
McCormack had logged dozens of hours with Brown, 28, and his camera, including spectacular aerial footage of 1983 and 1984 Bloomsdays.
The Chopper 2 pilot said he has landed in the parking lot’s northeast corner, not far from the crash site, hundreds of times.
Richey didn’t put his craft down in exactly the same spot, said Jeff Burke, the station’s operations engineer, who saw the landing on a security camera monitor.
While Brown loaded his equipment in the helicopter, Burke said he briefly took his eyes off the monitor to shut off a piece of equipment.
“When I looked back up, the whole monitor was full of flame,” he recalled. “I didn’t know what happened; then I realized the helicopter had crashed.”
He called the 911 emergency number, but it was too late for Brown and Richey.
Their bodies, burned beyond recognition, were taken to Ball & Dodd Funeral Home, where funeral arrangements were pending today.
McCormick said he “just couldn’t make myself” visit the crash site.
“If I could have been there, it wouldn’t have happened,” he said Sunday evening, his voice breaking. “That’s the way you feel. It crosses your mind.”
His sadness was expressed by others who knew Brown as a humble, quiet, conscientious professional who had won numerous awards from the Society of Professional Journalists.
His awards included second place in 1981 for spot news reporting of the Bunker Hill shutdown and a 1983 award for excellence in photography for a story about a wagon train.
“Gary was doing what he loved to do, and that was covering news,” said KREM news anchor Dennis May as he walked away, head bowed, from the fire-blackened crash site.
Richey, 49, likewise, was a pro.
He had hundreds of hours of flying helicopters.
He earned the Distinguished Flying Cross, Purple Heart, Bronze Star and Air Medal while an Army chief warrant officer in Vietnam in 1966.
He opened his helicopter business in 1971 and later did flying for Washington Water Power Co., the Forest Service and crop dusting work.
Richey, born in Albuquerque, N.M., is survived by his wife, Mildred; three children, Shannon, Sherry and Cliff Jr.; three stepchildren, Billy, Jimmy and Margaret Evers; and two brothers and two sisters, Johnny Richey of Detroit, Willie Richey of Spokane, Lorraine Pearce of Hawaii and Sandra Richey of Spokane. He also has four grandchildren.
His parents, John and Rosie Richey, live in Spokane.
“He on several occasions had volunteered his equipment and his time to provide police officers the opportunity to train in and around a helicopter,” said Police Sgt. Robbin Best, who knew Richey.
In the station’s newsroom, there were a lot of tears as 10 photographers and reporters returned from covering Bloomsday and learned the grim details.
“We always hear about this kind of thing happening, but it’s always somewhere else,” said weather anchor Shelly Monahan.
“I don’t think it’s hit us yet,” she added, her voice trailing off.
News director Jan Allen said the station’s chief photographer “was a creative and imaginative photographer as well as a wonderful human being.”
“Gary could just tell the whole story with pictures,” she said. “With him, you didn’t need words.”
Photojournalist Ed Springer, who hired Brown to work for KREM, gazed at the crash that darkened the otherwise joyous day for the working press.
“He had a true love for his job and always aspired to be one cut above everyone else,” said Springer, now a photographer for KHQ-TV.
Brown, who attended Shadle Park High School and Eastern Washington University, worked part time for KHQ and KTVB-TV in Boise before joining KREM in March 1979.
He and his wife, Lynn, had a daughter, Leslie, Allen said.
As the station’s chief photographer, Brown essentially pulled rank and assigned himself to again handle the aerial coverage, his colleagues explained.
Photographers regard that assignment as the “coup de grande,” said Springer, himself a veteran aerial photographer.
“You can’t hear the screams and yells up there,” he said, “but you can feel the spirit of Bloomsday in a unique way.”
“It’s always a rush to look out from the helicopter and see all those people…”
Monday, May 6, 1985
http://spokanetvhistory.wordpress.com/1985/05/06/2-killed-in-krem-crash/
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Story
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March 19, 2014 in City
KOMO helicopter crash similar to 1985 KREM accident
Kip Hill The Spokesman-Review
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KOMO helicopter crash kills 2, injures bystanderMarch 19, 2014
Tuesday morning’s fatal helicopter crash in Seattle bore many similarities to a wreck that killed a TV photographer and contracted pilot during Bloomsday 1985.
Gary Brown, a KREM-TV photographer, and Cliff Richey, a Vietnam veteran and private pilot, died shortly after takeoff from the TV studio’s parking lot May 5, 1985. Their helicopter struck a 3-inch-thick support wire for the station’s TV tower about 60 feet above the ground, Spokane Chronicle reporter Bill Morlin wrote at the time of the crash.
Richey was a last-minute replacement for the station’s regular pilot, who was grounded by doctors because of a medical condition. Richey landed the helicopter in a different part of the parking lot than was normally used, according to the news report.
Firefighters arrived to find debris strewn in a 100-foot radius, reporter Theresa Goffredo wrote for The Spokesman-Review. Witnesses said the entire parking lot was engulfed in flames.
Richey earned a Purple Heart and Flying Cross for his military service. Brown won multiple awards during his time at KREM.
“Gary was doing what he loved to do, and that was covering news,” KREM anchor Dennis May told the Chronicle.
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2014/mar/19/komo-...imilar-to-1985-krem/
------------
from his Mom’s obit.: ‘a son, Gary D. Brown (who died in a helicopter accident during Bloomsday 1985 while working as chief photojournalist for KREM-TV)’
------------
Bloomsday facts, year-by-year - Compiled by Susan Mulvihill
May 5, 1985
Registered: 39,662
Finished: 37,736
Sculptor David Govedare creates the Bloomsday statue, “The Joy of Running Together,” in Riverfront Park. Twenty-six Olympians run. A helicopter hired by KREM-TV to cover the race crashes and kills pilot Clifford D. Richey and photojournalist Gary Brown. Men’s and women’s elite runners Paul Davies-Hale and Anne Audain win their divisions and Gary Kerr and Candace Cable-Brooks win the men’s and women’s wheelchair races.
------------
Gary D. Brown
Obituary
Gary D. Brown, 67, of Curtis Creek Retirement Home, formerly of New Canton, died at 11:47 p.m. Saturday (Jan. 29, 2011) in Barnes Jewish Hospital, St. Louis.
He was born March 14, 1943, in Quincy, a son of Arthur and Beulah Langfahl Brown.
Gary graduated from West Pike High School, Kinderhook, and Culver-Stockton College, Canton, Mo.
He taught in the Quincy public school system for four years. Interest in agriculture led to a career as a nutritional swine specialist for Moormans, Nutra Basics, and he retired as regional sales manager for Con-Agra.
Gary loved to sing and was well known in Pike County as an entertainer and emcee for many events.
He is survived by one son, Breck Brown (Kristin), of Wausau, Wis.; two daughters, Brenda Wade (Scott), of Springfield and Barbara Brown of San Antonio, Texas; four grandchildren, Bennett, Bergen and Brenna, of Wausau and Skylar of Springfield; and two sisters, Sandra Root and Gayanne Daugherty (Duane) of Quincy.
He was preceded in death by his parents and an infant brother, Clarence Leland Brown.
SERVICES: 1 p.m. memorial service Wednesday in the Kirgan Funeral Home, Barry, with the Rev. Judith Taylor conducting. Final disposition will be private.
MEMORIALS: Charity of donor's choice.
ARRANGEMENTS: Kirgan Funeral Home, Barry.
Condolences may be expressed online at www.whig.com.
- See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/whig/obituary.asp...sthash.8gV5VShS.dpuf
------------
2 killed in KREM crash
May 6, 1985
Victims known as pros to friends, co-workers
By Bill Morlin Spokane Chronicle
They died doing the jobs they loved.
Television photojournalist Gary Brown and helicopter company owner Cliff Richey were lifting off under a bright blue sky Sunday to film the Bloomsday race from the air.
Fiery tragedy struck in the parking lot of KREM-TV when the rotor blade of the Hughes 500D helicopter struck a television tower guy wire, about 60 feet off the ground.
It was the first tragic event associated with the nine-year history of Bloomsday.
Richey, a highly decorated Vietnam copter pilot, was a fill-in for Dale McCormick, who flies Chopper 2, owned by Price Airmotive.
“I was set up to fly it, early on, about three weeks ago,” said McCormick of the Bloomsday assignment.
McCormick, 38, said he was grounded by a flight surgeon who had prescribed a medication for a skin infection. On Friday, the TV station made arrangements for Richey’s company, Spokane Helicopter Service, to handle the assignment.
McCormack had logged dozens of hours with Brown, 28, and his camera, including spectacular aerial footage of 1983 and 1984 Bloomsdays.
The Chopper 2 pilot said he has landed in the parking lot’s northeast corner, not far from the crash site, hundreds of times.
Richey didn’t put his craft down in exactly the same spot, said Jeff Burke, the station’s operations engineer, who saw the landing on a security camera monitor.
While Brown loaded his equipment in the helicopter, Burke said he briefly took his eyes off the monitor to shut off a piece of equipment.
“When I looked back up, the whole monitor was full of flame,” he recalled. “I didn’t know what happened; then I realized the helicopter had crashed.”
He called the 911 emergency number, but it was too late for Brown and Richey.
Their bodies, burned beyond recognition, were taken to Ball & Dodd Funeral Home, where funeral arrangements were pending today.
McCormick said he “just couldn’t make myself” visit the crash site.
“If I could have been there, it wouldn’t have happened,” he said Sunday evening, his voice breaking. “That’s the way you feel. It crosses your mind.”
His sadness was expressed by others who knew Brown as a humble, quiet, conscientious professional who had won numerous awards from the Society of Professional Journalists.
His awards included second place in 1981 for spot news reporting of the Bunker Hill shutdown and a 1983 award for excellence in photography for a story about a wagon train.
“Gary was doing what he loved to do, and that was covering news,” said KREM news anchor Dennis May as he walked away, head bowed, from the fire-blackened crash site.
Richey, 49, likewise, was a pro.
He had hundreds of hours of flying helicopters.
He earned the Distinguished Flying Cross, Purple Heart, Bronze Star and Air Medal while an Army chief warrant officer in Vietnam in 1966.
He opened his helicopter business in 1971 and later did flying for Washington Water Power Co., the Forest Service and crop dusting work.
Richey, born in Albuquerque, N.M., is survived by his wife, Mildred; three children, Shannon, Sherry and Cliff Jr.; three stepchildren, Billy, Jimmy and Margaret Evers; and two brothers and two sisters, Johnny Richey of Detroit, Willie Richey of Spokane, Lorraine Pearce of Hawaii and Sandra Richey of Spokane. He also has four grandchildren.
His parents, John and Rosie Richey, live in Spokane.
“He on several occasions had volunteered his equipment and his time to provide police officers the opportunity to train in and around a helicopter,” said Police Sgt. Robbin Best, who knew Richey.
In the station’s newsroom, there were a lot of tears as 10 photographers and reporters returned from covering Bloomsday and learned the grim details.
“We always hear about this kind of thing happening, but it’s always somewhere else,” said weather anchor Shelly Monahan.
“I don’t think it’s hit us yet,” she added, her voice trailing off.
News director Jan Allen said the station’s chief photographer “was a creative and imaginative photographer as well as a wonderful human being.”
“Gary could just tell the whole story with pictures,” she said. “With him, you didn’t need words.”
Photojournalist Ed Springer, who hired Brown to work for KREM, gazed at the crash that darkened the otherwise joyous day for the working press.
“He had a true love for his job and always aspired to be one cut above everyone else,” said Springer, now a photographer for KHQ-TV.
Brown, who attended Shadle Park High School and Eastern Washington University, worked part time for KHQ and KTVB-TV in Boise before joining KREM in March 1979.
He and his wife, Lynn, had a daughter, Leslie, Allen said.
As the station’s chief photographer, Brown essentially pulled rank and assigned himself to again handle the aerial coverage, his colleagues explained.
Photographers regard that assignment as the “coup de grande,” said Springer, himself a veteran aerial photographer.
“You can’t hear the screams and yells up there,” he said, “but you can feel the spirit of Bloomsday in a unique way.”
“It’s always a rush to look out from the helicopter and see all those people…”
Monday, May 6, 1985
http://spokanetvhistory.wordpress.com/1985/05/06/2-killed-in-krem-crash/
------------
Story
Comments
March 19, 2014 in City
KOMO helicopter crash similar to 1985 KREM accident
Kip Hill The Spokesman-Review
Tweet 0
Recommend
2
Tags:Bloomsdayhelicopter crashKREM
Event coverage
Latest updates and galleries
Bloomsday 2013 »
Bloomsday 2012 »
Bloomsday 2011 »
Related stories
KOMO helicopter crash kills 2, injures bystanderMarch 19, 2014
Tuesday morning’s fatal helicopter crash in Seattle bore many similarities to a wreck that killed a TV photographer and contracted pilot during Bloomsday 1985.
Gary Brown, a KREM-TV photographer, and Cliff Richey, a Vietnam veteran and private pilot, died shortly after takeoff from the TV studio’s parking lot May 5, 1985. Their helicopter struck a 3-inch-thick support wire for the station’s TV tower about 60 feet above the ground, Spokane Chronicle reporter Bill Morlin wrote at the time of the crash.
Richey was a last-minute replacement for the station’s regular pilot, who was grounded by doctors because of a medical condition. Richey landed the helicopter in a different part of the parking lot than was normally used, according to the news report.
Firefighters arrived to find debris strewn in a 100-foot radius, reporter Theresa Goffredo wrote for The Spokesman-Review. Witnesses said the entire parking lot was engulfed in flames.
Richey earned a Purple Heart and Flying Cross for his military service. Brown won multiple awards during his time at KREM.
“Gary was doing what he loved to do, and that was covering news,” KREM anchor Dennis May told the Chronicle.
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2014/mar/19/komo-...imilar-to-1985-krem/