Richard M. Brown honored with Myrick Award for Community Service

By Mike Lange
Staff Writer

    DOVER-FOXCROFT — One of the highlights of the annual meeting of the Piscataquis County Economic Development Council is the presentation of the Warren “Pete” Myrick Award for Community Service.
    This year’s winner is not only a fixture in the community, but someone who was described as a person who exemplifies the attributes of Myrick, a longtime Guilford resident, educator and one of the original members of the PCEDC Board of Directors.

Observer photo/Mike Lange

    PCEDC HONOR — Richard M. Brown, CEO of the Charlotte White Center, was presented with the Warren “Pete” Myrick Community Service Award at the Piscataquis County Economic Development Council’s annual meeting on Dec. 1. Presenting the plaque is Janet Sawyer of PCEDC.

    This year’s honoree is Richard M. Brown, the chief executive officer of the Charlotte White Center.
    “The criteria for the award is the overall impact of the candidate’s accomplishments, the duration of the candidate’s engagement in community service activities and the breadth of community involvement,” said Janet Sawyer, co-director of PCEDC.
    Brown was selected to be the first CEO of Charlotte White Center in 1978, an organization that provides community health and social services for adults, children and families affected by intellectual or developmental disabilities.
    Charlotte White started as a small, nonprofit organization with four employees “to a multi-level, multi-dimensional agency serving more than 1,500 individuals with 480 employees,” Sawyer said.
    Brown has served as a paramedic for Mayo Regional Hospital for 32 years and was instrumental in creating a crisis intervention team for Piscataquis County in collaboration with other social service and law enforcement agencies, Sawyer said during the presentation. “Dick (Brown) also helped start the batterers invention program,” she added. “And his concern for the youth in the community helped him to start the Lifejackets program, an after-school program aimed at helping develop self-confidence and leadership skills for youth ages 10-15.”
    Brown serves on the boards of directors for several organizations including the Brain Injury Council, the Juvenile Justice Advisory Group, the Maine Association for Nonprofits and the Dorthea Dix Center, “Dick demonstrates dedication, persistence and compassion for the people that Charlotte White Center serves,” she said.
    Brown’s employees nominated him for the award, simply describing him as a “man with an incredibly big heart. He has taught us to treat all people with positive, unconditional regard.”
    Brown said that he was “stunned” but pleased to receive this award. “I’ve seen those who have received the award over the years and it’s an honor to be among them,” he said. He recalled working with Myrick when he was the adult education director of SAD 4. “I got to know him through the eyes of other people who worked with him. He and Tom Lizotte were the ‘dynamic duo’ who got local economic development up and running,” Brown said.
    He joked that as one of the first employees of Charlotte White Center, he remembered the mantra of “first hired, first fired. So I guess things have worked out for me pretty well.”
    Brown said that he loves Piscataquis County “for the spirit I find here … People come together in the community as a whole for their fellow citizens, and we’ve been the beneficiaries of that.”