Deceased June 28, 2022
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In Memory
Jonathan Brower passed away in June 2022 from pneumonia. He grew up in Amherst but moved to Belmont, Mass., during high school when his father, Reuben Brower ’30, left Amherst’s English department for a prestigious Harvard position.
One evening in Stearns, a one-finger “When the Saints Go Marching In” sounded repeatedly from the common room’s piano. Later, the chimes in Stearns Steeple rang the same tune. Jon’s student ID card had slipped the tower lock’s bolt. He climbed the spiral stairs to the nine wood levers whose cables rise to the clappers. That prank certainly outclassed his 1940s attempts to drop pebbles into locomotives’ smokestacks as they steamed under the overpass near Pratt Field’s main entrance.
Jon joined his family in Italy during the summer of 1957. His souvenir Lambretta scooter was his modern Roman solution to Boston traffic.
He sang with the 1961 Smith-Amherst choral tour, which included performances in numerous locations in four European countries, an experience he held close to his heart thereafter.
Upon graduation, Jon invested two years in Haiti with the American Friends Service Committee, a community service program centered on school construction.
An urban community development program in Caracas, Venezuela, followed. There he met Esperanza Tugues, his wife of 52 years. They had two charming daughters, Lucia and Amelia. Drawing upon his capability in architecture, Jon designed and built their family home.
Later in his long career in Venezuela, Jon switched to education projects, teaching English and English-Spanish translation.
The family moved to Belmont, Mass., in 2001. Both daughters attained MBAs, from Boston University and MIT. Lucia died from cancer in 2021. Jon is survived by Esperanza, Amelia, his two sons-in-law and four grandchildren.
We miss Jon, a man who was kindhearted, played by the rules, and enjoyed and shared life.
Norman Spencer ’60 and Charles Husbands ’61