Northborough’s Frank Brown: World War II veteran, business owner, unlikely artist

NORTHBOROUGH – Frank Brown grew up in a small town in Vermont 10 miles from Montpelier. The son of a wood-chopper, Brown was educated in a one-room schoolhouse. He went to high school for all of two weeks before he’d had enough.

At 15, he came by train to Worcester to live with his mother. His love of movies made the decision to move easy – there were few theaters in the wilderness of Vermont – but he was motivated by something deeper. Though World War II was raging, 17-year-old Brown decided to join the U.S. Navy – he wanted to see more of the world.

“I never saw anything but Vermont,” Brown told the Community Advocate at Dunkin’, where he eats every morning. “I never saw the ocean and I couldn’t swim, either. My brother joined the Navy, so I figured that was a good place, so I went into it. I didn’t know anything at the time.”

He imagined traveling the world and sailing the high seas on a brand-new warship. But Brown’s far-flung dreams of exploration were squashed when, after finishing bootcamp, he was ordered to a tugboat in Boston. The in-state assignment wasn’t exactly the adventure he envisioned.

However, Brown’s ironic twist of fate would foreshadow what the rest of his life would look like. Through sheer happenstance and several strange coincidences, Brown entered the television industry, started an iconic Northborough business, and, eventually, became an artist.

From Navy to Northborough

Brown’s time aboard the Boston tugboat did not mark the end of his military service, though he stayed there as World War II ended. After a brief stint at the Great Lakes Naval Station, Brown received perhaps his dream assignment – a placement on a brand-new destroyer touring South America. It was the world travel he’d dreamed about from his earliest days in Vermont.

Except the next day, Brown came down with the mumps. As the ship bound for South America left the port, he remained in the hospital and was eventually sent to San Francisco, California, to do work on radioactive ships. The role involved lots of showering, geiger counters, and blood tests.

Brown finished his U.S. Navy service in 1948.

He bought a house in Northborough in 1954 – he still lives there today, 70 years later – and married his wife, Rhea. The family had four children: Frank, David, Paula, and Michael. Northborough was like “the boonies,” said Brown, but he didn’t have money, land was cheap, and the location enabled him to work at a Worcester Wyman-Gordon factory.

That’s when another fortuity happened. Brown loaned someone money, but when payback day arrived, the person didn’t have the cash on hand. Instead, he offered Brown a used manual on radio and television equipment. Brown wasn’t happy about the offer, but “something’s better than nothing,” and he started reading the booklet.

“My coworkers told me afterwards that I should’ve never trusted that person. I took the book. I started reading it one day, and I kind of liked it. I learned how to fix radios and TVs and became a TV guy. When my son got out of school, we opened a store,” said Brown.

From industry to art

Brown’s TV & Appliance is now known by most Northborough residents. First opened in the 1970s near Sawyer’s Bowladrome, the store moved to its current location inside the Northboro Shopping Center along Route 20 in the 1980s. Brown later gave the business to two of his sons, who later sold it to another group, but the store still remains today.

“I just got lucky, I guess. That’s why it was successful. I had my whole family working there. It just seemed that things took off. That’s when the VCRs came out and the movies. I got into the movie-rental business. It just took off,” said Brown.

And in another serendipitous twist, the television business led to another unexpected chapter in Brown’s life. Brown was fixing a television one day and, after doing his repair, turned to a random channel to ensure it worked. German art instructor Bill Alexander popped onto the screen.

The television screen lit up as it was supposed to – and so did the lightbulb above Brown’s head.

“The guy comes on, and he starts putting stuff on the painting. I said, ‘That’s pretty nice.’ I’d like to do that. I thought I could do that. I went to Spag’s and got the canvas, paint, and brushes,” said Brown, who went as far as Cape Cod to source materials for his paintings.

Bob Ross – an American painter who hosted television shows – was another inspiration.

“I used to tape it on my recorder upstairs and I’d run down to the cellar and paint a little bit. I’m running up and downstairs watching it, doing a little bit at a time. Finally, I got pretty good at it. I started doing it for the heck of it,” Brown said.

The art spent some time in the garage, but decades later, it was made available to the public at Applefest to raise funds for a new kitchen at the American Legion post. He remembered painting 30 or 40 pieces, but when he went into the garage to retrieve them, he found over 100 paintings.

The paintings aren’t the only thing that Brown – a Quilt of Valor recipient – has given away. He’s well-known for offering his home-grown vegetables to the community. He also makes pens in his spare time.

For Brown, it’s been a strange road filled with coincidence, but one thing links his military service, TV repair business, artwork, and, finally, his vegetable garden.

“I just like helping people out,” he said.