January 22, 2022
SPS community mourns the loss of beloved Humanities teacher
When Omar Brown was interviewing for a teaching position at St. Paul’s School in 2019, he made a request of the Rev. Michael Spencer that the vice rector of faculty had never received from a job applicant. It was the end of the interview, and the two men were speaking by telephone. “He asked if he could pray with me,” Spencer recalls.
It was the first glimpse Spencer would have of Brown’s deep faith, but it certainly wouldn’t be the last. Brown was hired to teach Humanities, and very quickly, Spencer recalls, “his larger- than-life laugh echoed down the halls of the Schoolhouse where he taught every day. That laughter and that joy were larger than life because they were fed by a deep reservoir of faith. Omar was a man of faith. When I needed to pray with someone, I would often go to Omar.”
During an employee Chapel service held to honor Brown following his death on Jan. 4 from a sudden illness, Rector Kathy Giles described him as someone who “pursued wisdom and understanding in the context of being a robust intellectual of deep and abiding curiosity and faith.” Recalling the many profound and wide-ranging conversations she and Brown had shared during his three years at SPS, she added, “Perhaps so much of his good energy came, in part, from the ways he reconciled curiosity, intellect, and faith. These huge questions, the apparent and tragic flaws in our world, were not irresolvable conflicts for him. Rather, he seemed to me to be willing to regard what today seem truly like mysteries with an unblinking focus; an unwavering courage; and an open, questing, accepting heart.”
The impact of Brown’s life — and his loss — has been deeply felt by many at the School. Faculty and staff members gathered in the Chapel on the morning of Jan. 5 to share reflections and honor Brown’s memory; a separate Chapel gathering for students, just returning from their winter break, was held later that evening. As the Winter Term resumes, trauma counseling and other supports for students and employees have continued to be made available.
Noting that Brown frequently spoke of his desire to work toward making SPS “Beloved Community” — a place where diversity of perspectives is honored, affirmed, and included — SPS Teacher of Physics and Astronomy Rick Pacelli observes, “Omar’s presence among us is a big reason why our community is as strong as it is. His influence seeped into so many aspects of community life here, perhaps more than any person I know.”
Teacher of Ceramics Becky Soderberg ’94 recalls Brown’s influence in faculty meetings. “Omar’s words always meant something important was going to be said,” she says. “He had a presence in the meeting, and you could tell everyone respected him and knew whatever he said would be coming from a place deeply rooted in love and faith. Omar made us all better people sharing his perspective and wisdom.”
Brown grew up in a household of educators, administrators, and teachers in Kingston, Jamaica, raised alongside sisters Nicole and Janelle as the only son of Omar Brown senior and Claudette Crawford-Brown. After attending a Jesuit high school in Jamaica, Brown completed his B.A. in sociology and music at Amherst College in 2013 and his master’s degree in theological studies at Boston University in 2016. It was at B.U. that SPS Humanities teacher and Chaplain Sam Lovett first met Brown, who was a year ahead of him in the divinity program.
“I remember Omar as a serious student who was also seriously lighthearted and caring,” Lovett says. “He would ask me how I was doing, and I would answer with something about a course reading or assignment. He would ask the same question again: ‘How are you doing?’ It was a gentle invitation to go deeper.”
Lovett says it was “happy serendipity” to reunite with Brown at SPS in 2020 as members of the same Humanities team and describes him as an amazing teacher who was well-loved by his students. “He had the ability to look beyond a syllabus, to read a room of students, and to care for them as people,” he says. “His students remark lovingly how he’d start classes with his signature, ‘how are you?’ and they knew he really wanted to know the answer. I learned so much from Omar about how to care for the whole person of a student. Omar was so supportive and loving and curious about everything and everyone around him.”
During his time at SPS, Brown taught Humanities V, a required class for Fifth Form students; Contemporary Black Literature; Religion, Race and Gender; Contemporary Ethics; and Economic Theory and Practice. After spending an afternoon photographing one of Brown’s classes last fall, SPS photographer Michael Seamans fell into a wide-ranging conversation with Brown that touched on food, photography, Black literature, and more. “He was genuinely interested in knowing what I thought of his teaching and of his class,” Seamans recalls. Brown’s inquiry wasn’t idle conversation; the two men had planned to sit down sometime during Winter Term to continue their discussion.
As a teacher and an adviser, students say, it’s hard to quantify how important Brown’s influence was. One recounts Brown’s gentle, encouraging feedback about an essay that the student knew she couldn’t complete on time: “It’s only Mr. Brown who [instead of lecturing me on responsibility] would have said something like this: ‘No one mistake should ever dictate how someone is defined. I know that you are a good student, and this was a particularly busy week. Hand in the essay today and let us keep moving forward. I know you are capable of excellence, and I am confident you will achieve it.’”
Another, an advisee, credits Brown with helping him through a rough patch his Fifth Form year. “To be perfectly honest, I’m not sure if I would still be at this School if it wasn’t for Mr. Brown …. . He encouraged me to do what I thought was in my best interest and showed me how to take back control of my life … . I could go on for hours saying what Mr. Brown meant to me but for simplicity’s sake, I can’t describe him as anything other than the embodiment of compassion and empathy.”
In addition to teaching and advising, Brown served on the SPS Faculty Leadership Committee and co-chaired the Faculty Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council. He lived in Simpson House with his wife, Jessica.
In tributes to Brown on the SPS website, faculty, staff, and students have shared their memories of Brown’s warmth and kindness, his genuine caring, his sense of humor, his ever-present smile. Echoing the sentiment of so many others, Teacher of Biology and Chemistry Sarah Boylan says, “He inspired me every single day with his capacity for optimism and love. The impact of his loss is tremendous, but I know that he has inspired many to dream, including me.”