By Ruth Ann Ruiz
The Post Newspaper Features Editor
Having the right person in the right place at the right time is sometimes just a matter of luck. For people of faith, it is Divine Intervention.
Citizens of Galveston didn’t know just how much of the right person, right place, and right time they were getting when Dr. Craig Brown went from Mayor Pro-Temp to holding the office of Mayor of Galveston.
Dr. Brown is known by many as being a leader who works well with people on all sides of the fence. He is also known as being a great team member.
These skills were essential in leading the seat of Galveston County through the pandemic, civil unrest, the near-miss of Hurricane Laura, February’s winter ice storm, the numerous storm threats of this summer and the most-recent Hurricane Nicholas.
His team player skills, attention to detail and commitment to dealing with tricky situations were well-honed as a young professional. Dr Brown’s practice in pediatric dentistry was mostly composed of working with special needs children, especially newborn babies with cleft palates and cleft lips.
“I was so blown away when I went with him one day for him to make an impression of a baby’s mouth who had been born without a palate,” said his wife, Angela Brown. “It’s really hard on the child’s parents when a baby is born with cleft palate or lip because it’s so disfiguring.”
A child born with a cleft palate or lip faces more than just disfigurement, as many cannot take a bottle or nurse without corrective surgeries.
“I worked with a wonderful team of doctors to correct the child’s mouth at Texas Children’s Hospital,” said Dr. Brown. His primary role was to help form the prosthesis while other doctors worked on corrective surgeries.
While developing his leadership skills as student council president at Castleberry High School in Fort Worth, Craig Brown didn’t realize his future bride had a crush on him.
“I was really hoping he would ask me out from the first time we met,” said Angela.
The two of them laugh together as they reminisce about those early years when he was a senior in high school and she was a sophomore. “We were on the yearbook committee and met each other at a function in the summer before school started,” said Craig.
Brown asked her out for a date in October, and by December he asked her to be his girlfriend. “It was under the Christmas tree in Fort Worth that he asked me to go steady with him,” said Angela.
In 1967, Craig was accepted into dental school at the University of Texas in Houston. By this time, Angela was ready to start her third year of college, but she decided to accept his marriage proposal and become his wife.
As husband and wife, they moved from Fort Worth to Houston.
She finished up her degree in psychology and sociology at Sam Houston State University. Meanwhile, Craig Brown became Dr. Brown and completed a residency in pediatric dentistry at Texas Children’s Hospital.
They brought two sons into the world and Angela cared for their sons while working part-time in her husband’s practice. “I did a lot of community education on dental hygiene for children,” she said.
Once moving to the Southern region of Texas, they visited Galveston as tourists. In the 80’s they purchased a vacation home in Pirate’s Beach.
“We loved our time as weekenders, so when it came time for retirement, we automatically thought of Galveston,” said Dr. Brown. In 1997, they moved to Galveston as full-time residents while Dr. Brown continued as a part-time dentist in Houston.
Neither were ready for recreational retirement activities, so they both became very engaged in community issues, serving to lead and support the community for over two decades.
Purchasing a building on Postoffice Street was part of their retirement activities, and Angela put her business and people skills to work, opening Mod Coffee Shop. They have since sold the business and it still operates as a central meeting place for many Galvestonians.
In 2014 Dr. Brown ran for — and won — a seat on Galveston’s city council.
He put his hat in the ring for mayor in May 2020’s election, but the election was postponed till November due to the pandemic.
It was during the hurricane season of 2020 that former Galveston Mayor James D. Yarbrough stepped down from his role as mayor due to health concerns and handed the mayoral reins over to Dr. Brown, who was at the time serving as Mayor Pro-Temp.
Shortly after assuming his position at the helm of the city, Hurricane Laura was threatening the region, and Mayor Brown worked with state and county officials putting a mandatory evacuation order in place. Thankfully, for all in Galveston, the category four hurricane made a sharp right turn before making landfall and did no harm to Galveston.
November arrived and the long-awaited election was held. Mayor Brown won the election making him the elected Mayor of Galveston.
Dr. Brown and his wife both love the lives they have carved out in Galveston. “We were drawn to the beach and the ocean, but it became more than that, it’s the rapport we established with Coastal people. The diversification of Galveston is something we love about being here,” both shared.
“And we love the older architecture and buildings,” they added.
