When Shane Brown was a senior at Dublin High School, he refused to cut his hair to the required length when he returned from summer break. The administrators gave him plenty of chances to comply, but that rule just didn’t make sense to Brown, and he was stubborn. So Brown was expelled in 1972, before he could graduate.
Despite his stubbornness — or because of it — Brown has gone on to have a long and fruitful career working for the U.S. government. Now retired and living in Virginia with his wife, he looks back with no regrets.
After Brown left school in 1972, Brown began searching for jobs. Because he didn’t have his diploma, there were a lot of places that wouldn’t hire him, and those that would were primarily hard labor. “My first job was at a brick factory,” Brown said. “It was probably the hardest job I’ve ever had, and I made $1.45 an hour which today just seems crazy.”
Brown left that job after a few months, and he and his friends started a painting business. They ran the business for a few years until the recession hit in the middle 70s. “It was a bad time for construction,” he said. “They stopped building and so we didn’t have enough work.”
Brown went back to get his GED. He also learned the craft of upholstery, and began working in furniture factories. “I did that for several years, and then just got to a point where I was looking for something different,” he said. “I heard they were looking for peanut inspectors for the State of Texas, so I got a job as a peanut inspector.”
This was Brown’s favorite job yet. He stuck around the Dublin area inspecting peanuts, andwhenthereweren’tpeanuts to inspect, Brown traveled around inspecting other crops. “After I did one peanut season in Dublin they took me down to the Rio Grande Valley to do onions after that, and then to the panhandle to do potatoes, and it kind of went in a circle for a couple of years after that,” he said.
Brown enjoyed the variety of the work, and he did a good job. “One day the [U.S. Department of Agriculture] came to me and said they needed a federal inspector up in Chicago for inspecting produce right before it went to a grocery store or restaurant,” he said.
So Brown went to Chicago for just over two years, and then moved again, this time to Washington, D.C., to work as a program specialistfor the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “I was over peanut inspections all over the whole country,” he said. “I did a lot of field trips. Anytime peanuts were being harvested and inspected, I made it a point to go out to each state and see what they were doing.”
That wasn’t standard for a federal inspector. “The farmers really loved it,” he said. He also had a non-traditional style when it came to his clothing choices. “When anybody from Washington D.C. would go out to do an inspection they would have a suit and tie. But I’m not a suit and tie kind of person. So I would go out there with my blue jeans and my western boots and my Western shirt. I was just a regular guy from Texas, and it worked out so well.”
This hands-on attitude was so popular that Brown even received an award for his work.
During his years working as an inspector in D.C., Brown wasabletotravelinternationally for inspections as well. He went to the Philippines one year to inspect grapes, and then to South Korea.
His time at the government came to an end in 2003 — due, once again, to his stubbornness and commitment to his principles. Around this time some new administrators in his department were trying to change a rule to benefit industry lobbyists, and not listening to the concerns of farmers. The rule concerned the use of an extra small class of peanuts in candy. The industry representatives wanted to allow the use of these peanuts, but the farmers were concerned because the small peanuts were often tough and could break people’s teeth.
“The farmers came to me saying, ‘We don’t love that reputation of people breaking their teeth on our peanuts, so we need you to fight for us,’” Brown said. “And I did. But the people in upper management gave in and they let the industry have their way and completely went over my head. When they did that I said, ‘Well, forget it. I’ve served no purpose here. So I quit.”
It didn’t take Brown long to find a new job, a total detour from his career so far: working at his friend’s pawn shop. “She was having trouble with her business partner,” Brown said. “He was messing around and taking money from her. I helped her split from him and get a new store started.”
After a little over a year at the pawn shop, Brown went back to working for the government in a new position with the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program. “It was basically crop insurance,” he said. “There’s crops that private insurance won’t cover, and the government created a policy where they will step in and help those farmers out if there’s a disaster.”
He stayed at that job for nearly 10 years, and then switched to a more softwareoriented role, once again with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, specifically in the Livestock Forage Program and Livestock Indemnity Programs. “They needed help on turning our programs into new software, and it wasn’t something I wanted to do but I didn’t have much else going on so I agreed to help out,” Brown said. “And apparently I did a good enough job that they made that my position full-time.”
Most of his coworkers had degrees in computer science. “And there I was, this kid from Dublin, Texas that got kicked out for long hair and didn’t have a high school diploma, developing these software programs,” Brown said.
Brown continued to work in software for a few years, until he had a stroke in 2019. “It was pretty bad and I couldn’t work any longer, so I went ahead and retired,” he said.
Over the last three years, he’s slowly been recovering, and is doing much better now.
One of Brown’s lifelong hobbies has been playing music. He started when he was young, after seeing the Beatles play the Ed Sullivan Show. Over the years, Brown learned to play guitar and sing, and he and a friend who played bass would play shows around the D.C. area. Brown’s band is called Brown Crow, named for himself and a friend he used to play with who has since passed away. The stroke made it hard for Brown to play. “That was the worst thing,” he said. “For the first year, I couldn’t even hold my neck up to play my guitar. And then after two years, I was able to start playing. And now after three years, I am playing a little more. In fact, I got back together with the band I had before the stroke. And two weeks ago we had a gig.”
He and his band played at a local festival where people do chalk art on the pavement of a huge parking lot and local musicians and vendors provide food and entertainment. “We were able to play a 45-minute set, and it all worked out so well,” he said. “There’s no way I could have done it without the help of my friends in the band. It was like a miracle to be able to get up there and do that again. I’ve got my life back.”
Brown and his wife Teresa currently live outside of Washington, D.C., on ten acres of wooded land in Virginia. He enjoys the climate and the scenery, and plans to stay there. Brown has one daughter from a previous marriage, Shana, who lives near him in Virginia with her two children. Throughout his life, Brown has found inspiration in the people around him. “It may sound corny but when I see good people doing good things, that inspires me,” he said.
His advice to Dublin graduates is to work hard for what they want to do. “Follow your dreams,” he said. “When I say that, what I am thinking about [in my life] is music. Because all my life, I wanted to do music. And being able to do this gig after having a stroke just seemed like such a miracle. I’m not selling out big venues or anything but being able to play this one was such a huge thing. So yeah, stick to your dreams and follow through.”
Editor’s Note: This column chronicles what Dublin graduates have done since high school. If you have any suggestions for other grads, email publisher@dublincitizen. com.