Page 7 - 2018 December

Eldred Brown

Toastmasters Gave

Me Confidence

Phyllis Harmon, DTM

Tell us about Eldred - where were you born,
grew up, went to school - what in your

childhood shaped who you are today?

I was born in Danville, Illinois, the town
that also gave the world Dick Van Dyke of Mary
I caught up with Eldred Poppins fame, and grew up there until I was

Brown recently and 13. Shortly before my 14th birthday I moved
out to Oregon with my brother to live with
asked that he share our grandmother and attended high school in

how Toastmasters has Sweet Home. After graduating from high school,

transformed his life. He I enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve and
earned a Bachelor of Arts in Music with a minor
graciously agreed to in mathematics from George Fox University in

answer a few probing Newberg. The biggest event in my childhood

questions. that shaped who I am today was the death of my
father when I was 10. For the next three years,
Mom’s mental illnesses made raising two boys
as a single mother impossible, which is why we

moved out to Oregon to live with Grandma.
(Mom is still living near Fort Wayne, Indiana.)
Being without a father figure for the rest of my
childhood left me with a lot of social anxieties,

which I had to work far into my adulthood to
overcome.

VOICES! |DECEMBER 2018 7