Gloria Brown, an army brat, was born in Waterbury but grew up on army bases all over—Germany, Kentucky, and more. She spent 37 years in Wolcott, teaching middle school math, 6th grade, and elementary gifted and talented. She got involved with her local teacher’s union, the WEA, early, and served many years as their president.
In the summer of 1979, she met her husband Bob at CEA Summer Leadership, held at Lakeville, CT. back then. They had two children Jess, a middle school special ed teacher in the Bronx, and Mike, a successful attorney who works mostly with the poor who are wronged by our justice system. Jess and Mike in turn have produced five adorable young grandchildren.
Gloria also has a daughter, Ali, from a previous marriage and a grandson, Cole, who is now in college. Gloria and Bob spent the next 42 years being deeply involved with their locals (both served many years as local presidents), CEA and the NEA. They attended countless CEA and NEA Rep assemblies over the years.
Gloria served for many years on the CEA Board of Directors, representing New Haven County as a director, and several years on the CEA Executive Board. When she retired, she immediately became involved with CEA-Retired, serving them as secretary, vice president and then president for many years. She was always an outspoken advocate for the teaching profession and students. One of her accomplishments was to connect CEA-Retired to the CEA Student (now Aspiring Educator) program, attending their events and arranging dinners for the two groups at the RA’s. Gloria served many years with her husband as NEA Fund for Children and Public Education captain (NEAPAC). She lobbied legislators on both the state and federal levels for teacher issues, our pension and against the unfair pension offset. She served as a CEA political intern when the position existed, and was a member of the Southington Town Democratic Committee. She was selected locally to serve on the Southington Ethics Board.
Gloria was also active in her community helping others. She served on the Southington Education Foundation board, helping provide grant money to local educators for special projects. She was a member of the Southington Rotary Club, doing many local, national, and international service projects. She never really retired from serving others.
Typical of her life, she was sitting in the children’s hospital in Westchester, New York with her granddaughter, Sophia, who had been diagnosed with leukemia, when Gloria suffered a severe stroke on November 1, 2022. She was hospitalized in New York for the next five months, never able to speak or move, and finally suffered such brain damage that her body simply gave out, and she passed away peacefully on March 18, 2023.
