BROWN (Martel),
Dorothy
Dorothy Martel Brown of Woodstock, GA, died Sunday, May 12, 2024, at home. She was 94.
Mrs. Brown was born Dorothy Louise Martel in Lynn, MA, on July 8, 1929, to Louise Grant Martel and Leo Martel. The family moved to Waynesville, NC, when she was 3 years old.
After receiving her high-school diploma from St. John's School in Waynesville, a small Catholic private school, she received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 1951. She received a Master of Education degree from Georgia State University in 1977.
She met her husband John Lee Brown, while both were working at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). In addition to physics, the two had many interests in common such as astronomy, as shown by their first date…to the observatory at Agnes Scott College. Both of them shared a love of flying, each earning their pilot's license before their driver's license as teenagers.
Mr. Brown, a graduate of Georgia Tech, worked at the Georgia Tech Research Institute from 1950-95, retiring as head of GTRI's Materials Characterization Laboratory. He died of cancer in 2009 at 83, marking 56 years of marriage to Mrs. Brown.
In between working at Georgia Tech, Mrs. Brown taught at Georgia State as one of the first female science instructors at the time, was employed at a Lenox Square jewelry store, and taught science at Campbell High School in Smyrna, GA before she returned to Georgia Tech in the late 1970s. At GTRI, she worked in a laboratory focusing on threat radar systems; in her roles as a research scientist, assistant to the program manager, task leader for documentation and technical writer/editor there, Mrs. Brown had a top-secret security clearance, producing over 22 volumes of technical final report material that brought together classified information from numerous GTRI research scientists.
Throughout her long life, Mrs. Brown was active in a number of community and national service organizations. She performed advocacy work for NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, and was an instructor with Literacy Action for adults who were climbing out of illiteracy at a later stage of their life.
She and her husband were longtime active members of the Atlanta Astronomy Club, which Mr. Brown co-founded, and the Georgia Tech Gourmet Club, hosting many internationally themed dinners for the Gourmet Club. Mrs. Brown was also a member of the Ridgewood Garden Club for many years.
A Memorial Mass for Mrs. Brown will be held Wednesday, May 22, 2024, beginning at 11 AM, at The Catholic Church of the Transfiguration in Marietta, where she was an active member. A reception will follow in the church's Parish Hall. One of Mrs. Brown's roles at Transfiguration was as one of the scheduling coordinators for the church's 24-hour Adoration Chapel for more than 20 years.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to NAMI in honor of Mrs. Brown and her family.
Leaf Cremation of Georgia, Acworth, is in charge of arrangements. Mrs. Brown's remains will be interred in Crest Lawn Memorial Cemetery on Atlanta's west side.
Mrs. Brown is survived by her children, Karen (Brown) Bakhtiari and husband Mojtaba, Barry Leo Brown and Alan John Brown; and her grandchildren Laila and Parisa Bakhtiari and Brendan Brown. She was preceded in death by her parents, husband, son Christopher, and sister Lorraine Martel Bratcher.
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