Colleen Brown DiPaul, a beloved community organizer, Grandma, and peace activist, passed away in her sleep on the evening of October 19, 2022. She was 95 years old.

Colleen was born on February 17, 1927, the eldest daughter of Reginald Garland Brown and Gladys Meador Brown, in Winston-Salem, NC, where her father was a tobacco buyer. Colleen graduated with honors from RJ Reynolds High School in 1945. She attended Meredith College from 1945 to 1947, where she served as class president. In 1947, she transferred to Wake Forest College, which had just opened admissions to women. As part of the first co-ed class, Colleen majored in English with a minor in Social Studies and Religion, and served on the college’s inaugural women’s council. She graduated cum laude in 1949.

Bored with teaching in Winston-Salem, Colleen and her sister Wilna job-hopped from New York City to Washington DC. While working as a code breaker in DC Colleen met her future husband, Mario, fresh back from adventures in Japan as a young Foreign Service Officer. They married in Reno, NV. Their sense of adventure led them to tours in Santa Rosa, CA, Okinawa, Pittsburgh, Bangkok, and Tokyo. Colleen and Mario loved entertaining and made life-long friendships around the world. In 1976, Mario retired from the Foreign Service. The couple settled in the mountain hamlet of Rector, PA, naming their home, Sans Sushi in honor of their happy years in Japan (plus Colleen loved word play). Feeling restless, Colleen earned a Masters in Library Science at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, which sparked another of her academic passions.

During their many years in the Far East, Colleen worked as an education counselor for the Armed Services, helping enlisted personnel receive all the benefits available to them. She held positions at the Social Security Administration, at the St. Vincent College Library, and with the National Geographic Society, as well as many other jobs. Her final assignment for the Armed Services, in 1978, took Colleen to Fort Bragg then to the base near Babenhausen, Germany, where Mario joined her. They returned to Rector in 1983, for good.

Never idle, Colleen made use of her skills as a library indexer. Her years at Nat Geo inspired a love of conservation, and in 1999, when Jane Goodall published Reason For Hope--without an index!-- Colleen set to work, coordinating an all volunteer crew to assist in the project in service to Jane’s mission. After 9/11, Colleen took it upon herself to index the 9/11 Commission Report along with the Iraq Study Group Report. Her work is recognized at the Johnstown Memorial in PA as well as by the study authors.

Colleen remained active with The League of Women Voters, Common Cause, Code Pink, the Pennsylvania Peace Links and many other social justice groups. Suddenly widowed in 1998, Colleen took an apartment at Victory Tower where she was called the “Road Runner” because she split her time between “saving the Rector Post office” and community projects here in Takoma Park. She led a petition to install a traffic light near Victory Tower to ensure pedestrian safety. Colleen also convinced the Montgomery County Council to reroute city buses to better serve the Tower’s elderly residents. Takoma Park became a permanent address as she devoted more time to caring for and shuttling her grandchildren, Nico and Lyla.

In her own words, Colleen was blessed with a life of “playing tennis, dancing with my grandchildren, beach-combing and swimming, book clubbing, museums and theatre, dining with family and friends and meeting old friends from work and play.” She didn’t give up tennis until she was 90 and managed table tennis for a few more years after that. And of course, Colleen was a devoted founding member of her friend, Pat’s “Play Day” Foundation, Lets Play America, which awarded Colleen the “Spirit of Play” award in 2015 for being a model of graceful aging and one of the neighborhood’s most eternally playful people.

Her life-long learning, aided by her innate curiosity and compassion for all the people of the world, gave Colleen a benevolent, service-minded generosity, often expressed with missionary zeal. She loved the Peacemaking potluck at the Takoma Park Presbyterian Church, her final spiritual community. Raised a Baptist, Colleen was greatly influenced by the Moravians of Winston-Salem as well as Buddhist, Unitarian, and Catholic Theology. On the day she died, she said “I no longer have purpose in life.” Her way of saying I am ready to make the move to the next world.

Colleen is survived by her son, Marco DiPaul, her daughter in law Jenny, her grandchildren, Nico and Lyla; nieces  and nephews Lynn Freeman, Melody Cook,  Jennifer Amos, Danielle Morgenthaler, John DePaul, and Deborah DePaul, and in-laws John and Fran DePaul.

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