Devoted family man, beloved educator and inspirational coach Jim Brown succumbs to coronavirus – My Central Jersey

Jim Brown, a devoted family man and pillar of the Colonia community who was the principal of Grover Cleveland Middle School in Caldwell, has died of complications from the coronavirus.

A beloved educator and youth sports coach who police in West Caldwell called a “natural leader,” Brown is survived by his wife, Sherry, and their three children. He was 48 years old.

“He passed away from COVID,” Sherry Brown said. “The family wants to share this because it’s so important. This man had no underlying conditions. He was the picture of health, and this illustrates just how devastating this virus really can be. He was the love of my life. He will be missed dearly.”

During a COVID-19 press briefing on Friday, Gov. Phil Murphy acknowledged the Woodbridge resident’s passing.

“God bless him,” Murphy said. “The accolades being posted in his memory by the members of the community tell just how deeply respected and loved he was.”

Ken Trimmer, a legendary high school football coach, now retired, who taught in Brown’s school district for more than five decades, called Brown “a superstar” at Grover Cleveland Middle School.

“The kids loved him, the teachers loved him, the parents loved him,” Trimmer said. “He was outstanding, the way he knew how to treat people, how to get people to do what they were supposed to do. We couldn’t have had – and we never may have – a person as good as Jim Brown in that building.

“All I’m thinking about today is his wife and his children. They are going to survive this because of the love and caring of the people around them. But Jim was too young to have a thing like this happen to him. We’ve never been in a situation of this magnitude of what’s going on (with COVID-19) in our country.”

All of the Courier News, Home News Tribune and MyCentralJersey coverage of the coronavirus is being provided for free to our readers. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to MyCentralJersey.com at .MyCentralJersey.com/subscribe.

Sherry Brown said Caldwell-West Caldwell Public Schools, in the ultimate show of respect for her husband, canceled distance learning for all of the district’s middle school students Thursday.

“I didn’t know him well, but so many people that I know did,” Woodbridge Mayor John E. McCormac said of Brown. “They all speak so highly of him, and that makes me wish I knew him better.”

Great principal and mentor

Brown was in his eighth year as a middle school principal. He previously spent six years as a vice principal at James Caldwell High School. During his 22 years as an educator, Brown also taught English at Lincoln Middle School in Dunellen and Dunellen High School. He was dean of students at both schools.

“My dad was everything to the entire family,” Brown’s oldest son, Jimmy, a precocious senior who was a star football player at Colonia High School said. “He was the ultimate family man. He definitely had a big inspiration on me, in not only football, but in life. He was an educator and a football coach. I want to pursue that, as well. I would like to follow in his footsteps.”

In a statement Caldwell-West Caldwell Public Schools Superintendent James Heinegg posted on the district’s website, he described Brown as a “vibrant educational leader” who developed numerous innovative programs in his eight years as a middle school principal.

“Jim Brown will be remembered as an outstanding educator who made tremendous contributions to the entire community of Caldwell-West Caldwell and beyond,” Heinegg said. “We mourn the loss of a wonderful colleague who enriched our lives with his kindness, intelligence and humor. We extend our deepest condolences to his family.”

Heinegg said Brown helped transform two unused supply rooms into state-of-the-art STEM learning centers. Through several grants that Brown wrote, students had opportunities to engage in Virtual Reality learning programs, Robotics, and Environmental Studies through a weather station and a green house.

Perhaps Brown’s most transformative work, Heinegg said, was in the area of social-emotional learning and community service. Brown introduced a House System to foster team-building and school spirit, and he created an advisory/enrichment program that allows students to develop networks of support and to explore their interests.

“Brown brought in many speakers from all walks of life to provide students with models of determination, grit, and commitment to helping those in need,” Heinegg said. “His unmatched dedication to community service inspired students, faculty, and parents to focus on compassion for our fellow citizens and to make a difference every day.”

A mentor to countless young student-athletes, Brown coached multiple youth sports in Colonia, including football. In 2016, Central Jersey Pop Warner named Brown its Coach of the Year. He was an assistant football coach at Dunellen High School during his time in the district as an educator.

Covid-19 victims: Coronavirus: Piscataway front-line hero dies of COVID-19

Dunellen head football coach Dave DeNapoli was crestfallen, fighting back tears as he talked about Brown’s legacy on his school-community and beyond.

“There are so many people that he touched,” DeNapoli said, noting powerful tributes to Brown are pouring in on his Facebook page. “We are all just kind of shocked by this. When he walked in a room, he had such a presence and charisma.”

DeNapoli recalled Brown as an outstanding educator and coach with a contagious sense of humor whose impressions of Al Pacino in Scarface and Robert Di Niro in Raging Bull were “just incredible.”

“He made an impact on everyone he came in touch with,” DeNapoli said. “So many people hearing about him are hurt.”

Brown’s daughter, Kayla, is a sophomore at Colonia high school and a member of the volleyball program. Brown’s youngest son, Jake, is an elementary school student who, like his siblings, excels in athletics.

“He was one of those parents who coached all the way through (youth leagues),” Colonia head football coach Tom Roarty said. “He coached Jimmy and my son Thomas through Pop Warner. He was involved with our youth baseball program with his youngest son. Whatever his kids were involved in, he was involved in. He was always around supporting whatever we were doing. He was a great family man – family was always first with him – and just a real great guy.”

Linden High School head football coach Al Chiola, who is a Colonia resident, said Brown “was willing to do anything for the community” and “involved in so many things with youth sports in Colonia,” adding, “my heart goes out to his entire family.”

Chiola said Brown was “always working out,” and others who knew the beloved educator, father and husband said Brown was in great physical shape.

Woodbridge head football coach Joe LaSala first met Brown four summers ago when the two happened to arrive at the same field in Colonia where they were flipping a tractor tire early one morning.

“He was always very supportive of me when I became the head coach over at Woodbridge,” said LaSala, noting Brown’s son, Jimmy, was a freshman when LaSala was still coaching at Colonia. “I formed a relationship with (the elder Brown) over time. The part that got me the most shook up was he was in very good shape.”

Marcus Borden, a New Jersey Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame inductee and MyCentralJersey’s football analyst, said Brown’s passing serves as a reminder that coronavirus does not discriminate.

“It just shows you that it doesn’t make any difference who you are,” Borden said. “This virus can affect anybody.”

Covid-19 victims: Coronavirus: Bridgewater man dies, wife hospitalized

Brown invited Borden, whose summer all-star high school football game, formerly known as the Snapple Bowl and rebranded as the Autoland Classic, has raised more than $700,000 for charity, to Grover Cleveland Middle School to speak to students last year on Make-A-Difference Day.

“I was honored that he had contacted me to come and talk about community service,” Borden said. “I know he was passionate about what he was doing (at the middle school). He was a tremendous educator. It must be devastating for the school community.”

Borden saw Brown at several football games last season and recalled him as an avid supporter, not just of Colonia athletics, but of high school sports statewide. He called Brown a “loving father that cared about his kids.”

Caldwell Mayor John Kelley told NewJerseyHills.com that he and the borough council “join our entire community in sending heartfelt condolences to (Brown’s) family, friends, and the many colleagues, staff and students whose lives he has touched.”

West Caldwell Mayor Joseph Tempesta told TAPintoWest Essex that he knew Brown personally and is “totally devastated” by his passing.

Brown’s school district has coordinated its crisis management team to help members of the principal’s school-community cope with his death, according to a post on the West Caldwell Police Department’s Facebook page.

In a message of condolence on its Facebook page, the West Caldwell Police Department called Brown a “great friend” who will “surely be missed.”

“From the first day you were introduced as a young vice principal at James Caldwell High School, we could instantly tell that there was something special about you,” the police department’s post reads. “You were a natural leader of people. When you would speak on a subject matter there was something about the manner that you spoke where the room sat up and listened.”

Colonia head volleyball coach Tom Hennessy said Brown did an amazing job juggling his responsibilities as an educator and father of three.

“He was pretty much at every event he could be,” Hennessy said. “He was the principal of a school, but it was always family first. It’s devastating to me. I can’t imagine what’s its doing to his family. Words can’t describe.”

A very special person

As a member of the Dunellen football staff, Brown coached the offensive line and special teams. Former player Brian Cilento remembered Brown on his Facebook page as a “great dude” and “awesome coach.”

Cilento recalled words of wisdom Brown imparted to him on his graduation day, noting he will share those same words with his own children and any teams he coaches in the future.

“In life, be a special-teamer. Live life like a wedge buster,” Cilento recalled of Brown’s inspirational words in the special teams vernacular. “Some might not understand that or get how to apply it to life. But if you played for Jimmy Brown, you got it!”

Brown, who graduated from South Plainfield High School, earned a Bachelor’s Degree in English Literature from Rutgers University and a Master’s Degree in Educational Administration from Kean University.

“The more and more I talked to people, they say he was a special man,” Jimmy said of his father. “He was special to everybody he knew, especially to me.”

More than 1 million people worldwide have been diagnosed with COVID-19, which has claimed the lives of nearly 53,000 individuals across the globe.

The number of state residents diagnosed with the coronavirus increased to more than 25,500 on Thursday. New Jersey ranks second in the country in coronavirus cases and third nationally with 537 coronavirus-related deaths. 

Woodbridge has the most coronavirus cases in Middlesex County with 132 residents testing positive as of Thursday night.

“We are dealing with it as best we can,” McCormac said. “We have an amazing array of volunteers and businesses who are making it better for the people of Woodbridge.”

Jimmy Brown tweeted Thursday that his father was the best in the world, teaching him what it means to be a man.

“I am going to honor you for the rest of my life,” Jimmy tweeted. “I know you’re up there right now looking over me.

“I love you.”

Email: gtufaro@gannettnj.com

Read or Share this story: https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/2020/04/02/devoted-family-man-beloved-educator-and-inspirational-coach-jim-brown-succumbs-coronavirus/5116542002/