The Concho Observer remembers Charles “Chuck” Stephen Brown II, who died in Las Vegas on July 29, at the age of 58.
One of the most-often quoted news sources for anything related to local hydrology, Chuck Brown was a life-long area resident who made a difference for everyone in West Texas that loves fresh water.
He was born to Stephen and Ellen Brown in San Angelo on July 27, 1967, where his father worked for the city after a successful newspaper career. His mother also worked in news.
Early mentions in the newspaper include him serving as a ringbearer at a wedding in 1974, and playing little league baseball with the Jim Bass Ford Pintos a few years later.
He played on the Central High School Golf Team, and spent plenty of time outdoors, according to friends and family, and after graduation, he attended Angelo State University.
Brown then, working for the Colorado River Municipal Water District’s research team trying to comprehensively study the Concho River Water Snake, which was considered endangered at that time.
The team worked to catch snakes, by hand, on the river and microchip them, in order to study their distribution patterns.
Their work showed the snake was not endangered, which needed to be demonstrated for the Stacy Dam Project, and the impoundment now known as O.H. Ivie Reservoir.
A few months later, responding to grousing about the name change of the new lake, Brown shared his thoughts with a message to the Speak-Your-Mind column in the newspaper.
“Why don’t you people enjoy the new reservoir for what it is? If you want someone’s mixed opinion, you have the prime candidate. My parents purchased land on the Colorado River below Leaday Crossing back in 1978, particularly as a place to fish and as a weekend getaway. Since then, I have been through Stacy, now called Ivie, Reservoir. I’ve hated the installment of the dam up until 1988, and it has taken 10 years for my young mind to realize the importance of this new lake.
“I work at O.H. Ivie Reservoir now and it is understandable the new name is not suitable for you landowners. But if it weren’t for Mr. Ivie, our new lake would never be in existence. So I strongly emphasize, and with confidence, the name of the lake means nothing compared to what the West Texas lake will provide. Can’t we all let the animosity die down and learn to enjoy the pleasures of the new lake?”
— Chuck Brown, Ballinger
In September 1990, when Ivie opened to the public the first time, Brown was the recreation director for the CRMWD, and told reporters that only eight boats had launched on the lake by 10 a.m.
He said it would probably be some time before the reservoir became attractive to anglers, noting that the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department initially stocked the lake with 500,000 Florida largemouth bass and 300,000 smallmouth fingerlings, in addition to several species of catfish.
“It will take a few years for them to reach legal size,” he explained. (O.H. Ivie is now one of the premier destinations for Mega Bass worldwide.)
After marrying in 1994, he worked a stint at SK Engineering in San Angelo, before taking a position with the Upper Colorado River Authority around the turn of the century.
Because Brown was a hydrology expert in a thirsty land, his career was remarkably well documented in the news over the next two decades.
Local reporters loved Brown for his willingness to discuss just about any aspect of issues affecting area waterways.
If there was a big rain, you’d probably be talking to Chuck Brown if you wanted to know which reservoirs benefited the most.
Reporters and photographers trekked far afield with him as he worked, explaining how a brush control study was being engineered, or measuring the flow of a remote spring-fed stream.
Through Brown’s interviews, many in the reading public gained a deeper appreciation for how everything in the area is tied together by waterways, and how the recharging of local aquifers works.
He was frequently seen, waist-deep in some part of the Concho River, dealing with conglomerations of algae, or working to attenuate the effect of stormwaters flooding into the river system, which regularly resulted in major fishkills along the Concho.
In 2009, he was instrumental in the dredging work done on the river, which was aimed at improving the waterway’s overall health.
Later that year, Brown became director of operations at the UCRA, just ahead of some major drought years that saw the Middle Concho go bone-dry for the first time in ages.
He quantified how much water the area’s reservoirs lose to evaporation for local planners, and helped to educate kids participating in the UCRA’s Aqua Squad program.
In 2021, Brown left his post at the UCRA and opened Hydro Corporation, providing his expertise to cities in West Texas, while continuing his work on boards and commissions.
A memorial service is slated for Tuesday in San Angelo.
