This photograph of Mackinac County Prosecutor Jim Brown and his son, Bobby, 5, was taken shortly after they made national news after their landing craft sank three miles off Point Brulee in July 1957. Mr. Brown pushed a makeshift raft carrying his son for four hours as he made his way to shore. (Photograph courtesy of Bobby Brown) Three long and two short whistles echoed across Moran Bay in tribute to Jim Brown, 87, who died Monday, September 1. The farewell salute was signaled by the Huron ferry as family and friends filled the United Methodist Church of St. Ignace Thursday, September 4, to remember a man who loved St. Ignace, whose actions influenced many, and whose work impacted the community.

He had the ability to connect with many people, said his son, Prentiss "Giz" Brown III, and he chose his friends based on their character, not their financial status or education. Giz Brown offered personal remarks on behalf of the family during the service.

The day was the 85th birthday of the late Mr. Brown's wife, Dorothy, known as "Sis." The couple have been married 65 years.

First National Bank Twilight Golf League champions from the early 1970s at the St. Ignace Golf Club include (from left) Jim Brown Jr., Prentiss "Giz" Brown III, Jim Brown Sr., and Prentiss "Moie" Brown Jr. (Brown family photograph) His list of professional accomplishments is long and includes being the former Mackinac County prosecutor, partner in the law firm Brown and Brown, local school board president for 35 years, bank president, co-owner of The Republican-News and St. Ignace Enterprise, and member of many community service organizations.

The son of U.S. Congressman and Senator Prentiss M. Brown, he had the connections and ability, say his friends and family, to serve in national politics. His father also was chairman of the Mackinac Bridge Authority.

Mr. Brown's love of St. Ignace kept his focus on Mackinac County.

"He wanted to wake up in St. Ignace, every day of his life," said his daughter, Barbara Brown, an attorney in the State Attorney General's office in Lansing.

His desire to remain in St. Ignace came at an early age. After he refused to attend school in Washington, D.C., when he was 11 years old, his parents finally sent him home to live with friends and relatives here while his father served in Washington.

Mr. Brown's friends spanned generations, some were business competitors, and some supported opposing political views. Mr. Brown was a staunch Democrat. Friends joined him on the golf course, at high school sporting events, and in a fishing boat. They faced him in court as legal opponents and as supporters. They were his clients. Some were financially struggling community members he had helped.

"I had a great deal of respect and admiration for the things he did locally," said former state Republican Senator Walt North of St. Ignace. "I think he did a lot of things he did not get credit for, whether it was helping someone financially or something else."

The men became friends about 40 years ago when Mr. North moved to the area to work for the bridge authority.

"I was always impressed that he was grounded to this area," said Mr. North. "He loved this area. He was the son of a U.S. Senator and he had connections. He probably could have done more politically — broaden his political horizons - but he focused on Mackinac County."

Mike Hart of Mackinac Island, the son of the late U.S. Senator Phil Hart, agrees.

"He was one of the wisest men I've ever known," said Mr. Hart. "He achieved in his 87 years, what 3,000 years of philosophers have struggled to define, The Good Life in capital letters. He knew what was important."

Mr. Brown was a man of his word, said retired Probate Judge George Theut. Through the years, the two men opposed each other in court, and later, Judge Theut presided over some of Mr. Brown's cases.

Larry Rubin, first secretary of the bridge authority, met Mr. Brown in the 1930s through Mr. Brown's father, who was the first chairman of the authority. In 1957, when Mr. Rubin moved to St. Ignace, the two young men became friends.

"He was a faithful friend from A to Z," said Mr. Rubin. "If I wanted anything done, he, better than anyone, could do it. I wouldn't hesitate to call him.

"He devoted a great deal of time to community service," recalled Mr. Rubin, "and did a formidable job. He also was a great, great competitor. He met the challenge head on, whether playing baseball or handling a lawsuit."

Former State Attorney General Frank Kelley, who served in the position for 37 years, said his family has known the Brown family through politics since the 1930s. At one time, Mr. Kelley's father served as chairman of the Michigan Democratic party and Mr. Brown's father was the deputy chairman.

Like his family, he said, the Brown family was dedicated to public service. Mr. Kelley said he and Mr. Brown discussed loyalty on many occasion.

The subject originated from Mr. Kelley's father, who often would ask around the dinner table, "Why is loyalty a virtue?" recalls Mr. Kelley. "The answer was because so few men have it."

Mr. Kelley continued, "In human relations, the virtue of loyalty is most important and without the virtue of loyalty, as a person, you're really an empty vessel."

Mr. Brown and his wife have 11 children. Mr. Brown was the consummate sports fan, closely following LaSalle High School sporting events and University of Michigan football.

He also had a collection of antique tractors, a small sawmill, a bulldozer, and a backhoe. He was an avid gardener, furniture maker, story teller, a lifelong sailor, and golfer. Fishing was his passion. He did it year around.

His interests, said Ms. Brown, were wide. Game playing, golf, or making maple syrup and sauerkraut were always enjoyed by the family.

"I always thought the measure of a man was how he treats children and animals," Ms. Brown said, "and no one was kinder to children and animals than my dad."

His love of sports went further than just watching LaSalle High School football games. He used his salvaging skills to acquire the catwalk used by ironworkers during construction of the Mackinac Bridge. It now is part of the fence around the Saints football field. When he noticed the field was not even, he got family, friends, and the football players to work on improving the playing surface.

"If you won by 20 points," said Tim Huskey of St. Ignace, a former Saints player, "then you should have won by 30 points. That was his remark to you. He always thought you could do better."

Mr. Brown's post-game visits and talks in the football locker room were common, and that's when the two men began their friendship.

"He was the kind of guy, the more you got to know him, the more you liked him," said Mr. Huskey. "I just thought the world of him. He was just a nice guy."

About a month ago, Mr. Huskey made Mr. Brown a card to remind him of one of their shared fishing adventures.

A few years ago, Mr. Huskey and his brother, Tom, were ice fishing for perch on Sturgeon Bay, southwest of the Mackinac Bridge. Between the shoreline and the spot where the fish were biting, which was about three miles, remembers Mr. Huskey, was a stretch of stacked ice, which made travel to the fishing site difficult. Most fishermen used snowmobiles or all-terrain vehicles to reach the spot.

As the Huskey brothers were fishing, they could see a pickup truck heading toward them, bouncing over the ice stacks.

"It's got to be Jim," said Mr. Huskey, laughing as he recalls the story. "Well, coming from the beach, he'd bounced around so much, he'd lost half his gear."

The two brothers had to cut a hole in the ice for Mr. Brown and give him a fishing pole. The three then spent the day fishing and talking.

Friends and family agree that if Mr. Brown could have, he would have gone fishing every day.

He made national news on the water July 17,1957 - but not for fishing. Before the day ended, he had saved his son's life and his own after their landing craft sank.

Mr. Brown was taking a vehicle on a World War II landing barge from the Favorite Dock in St. Ignace to the family cottage on Marquette Island at Les Cheneaux. The barge had been modified to include an enclosure for the pilot.

The vehicle was loaded the night before, and the loading ramp was kept partially down as they tested the vessel in Moran Bay.

Then five years old, Bob Brown, now president of Arnold Transit company, joined his dad the next morning on the trip to the island and remembers it was his grandfather who told him to wear his lifejacket.

The day was sunny and the lake was calm. They were nearing Point Brule when the elder Brown asked his son to take over steering the vessel. They were traveling about 10 miles per hour.

Young Bobby was not even tall enough to see out the window, so he sat on a stool, keeping an eye on a pine tree on the shoreline and the boat pointed in the right direction. His father had told him to use the pine as a marker.

For reasons unknown, about three miles from shore, Mr. Brown decided to partially lower the ramp, as he had the previous evening.

Only this time, something broke.

The ramp dropped down to the load position and served as a scoop for Lake Huron's water.

"The water just roared in," remembers Bob Brown. "The boat tipped, recovered, and then went straight down.

"My dad came running. There was kind of a little engine room," he remembers. "You had to go through a little door then up this little make-shift stairway to where I was. He came shooting up and just grabbed me. He said the straps on my lifejacket were actually tangled in the stirring wheel a little bit. He untangled those. We stepped out of the pilot house door and the boat just went right out from underneath us."

Fortunately, a couple more life jackets floated up and a wooden stairway that once led from the vehicle deck to the upper deck of the landing craft also floated to the surface.

"I remember when he held me in his arms, when the boat went out from under us, I just turned to him and asked, 'Did the boat sink?'And he said, 'Yes, it sank.'"

Mr. Brown placed Bobby on the stairway, using it as a raft topped with the lifejackets. For four hours, he pushed the makeshift raft with his chin as he swam toward shore. Once on shore, Mr. Brown could hardly walk, remembers his son. They rested a bit before beginning what turned out to be a two-mile walk before they reached a house, where a woman drove them into Hessel.

As they were late reaching the island, the family had contacted the Coast Guard, which was looking for the father and son. So was Mr. Brown's brother, Prentiss "Moie" Brown, who flew his plane over the area. By that time, the water-soaked pair were in Hessel.

Over the years, people have asked Bob Brown if he was scared after the boat sank.

"I didn't realize how serious it was at the time," he said. "I just thought, well, I guess this is what you do when you go out on a boat. Sometimes they sink, sometimes they don't."

He was not the only one who had a close call with his father.

Chuck Blanc, an old fishing buddy of the elder Mr. Brown, experienced several close calls when the pair used to ice fish together, recalls Bob Brown.

"I like being with Jim," said Bob Brown, remembering Mr. Blanc's words. "The only thing I don't like is he always gets you into trouble, but he always seems to get you out, too."

Editor's Note: James J. Brown's obituary was published in The St. Ignace News September 4.