Meet Frank Brown

(Oct. 23, 2020) Ocean Pines this week welcomed Frank Brown to the Board of Directors, the governing body of the Association.  

Board members by a unanimous 6-0 vote on Wednesday, appointed Brown to succeed retiring director Steve Tuttle and to fill out the rest of his term, which expires in August.  

Originally from the west side of Baltimore, Brown and his family lived in Arnold, Maryland for 20 years before moving to Ocean Pines full time in 2015. He had owned property in the community since 2005.  

“My dad and I owned a place in Delaware, and from there we were always driving around and looking at other places in the area. My wife and I found Ocean Pines a long, long time ago,” Brown said. “When it got to the point that we were going to buy a place ourselves and retire, we decided to buy a place down here.  

“The golf course was the number-one attraction for me, because I’m an avid golfer,” he added.  

After 10 years of owning a summer home in Ocean Pines, Brown bought a lot in Terns Landing and hired a contractor to build a “shell.” He and his wife finished the interior. 

“We moved in here on Christmas Eve of 2015, and we have enjoyed it immensely,” Brown said. 

Before retiring, Brown was a chemistry and physics teacher at the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute until 2004. He also owned and operated a contracting business from 1974 until 2014.  

He said he’s had many offers to continue working in the Ocean Pines area, but always politely declined.  

“I’ve tried real hard not to do it,” he said with a laugh. “I enjoy playing golf and going out on my boat too much.” 

Brown has, however, volunteered often. He joined the Ocean Pines Budget and Finance Advisory Committee three years ago, and he serves on the Ocean Pines Golf Members’ Council, as the treasurer.  

In 2018, Brown and a few other golfers became interested in the planned remodeling of the old golf clubhouse.  

“I was tremendously interested in the new clubhouse, because of my building background,” he said. “That old clubhouse was an absolute disaster. The entire second floor was gone and the rest of it wasn’t much better.” 

Brown said he met former Board member Ted Moroney at a party and got to talking about the old building. At the time, there were plans for a costly renovation.  

“I told him that was a waste of money!” Brown said. “We later walked through the old building to see what was really up there, and it was a total disaster.” 

About a month later, Brown, Bob Long and Don McMullen made a pitch to the Board during a public meeting.  

“I laid out what I thought about that building,” he said. “They were getting ready to spend $800,000 in the upstairs of the building and I just told them flat out, you’re just flushing $800,000 down the drain. There was no way to save that building.” 

A few Board members held an informal meeting at the clubhouse the next day, and things started to steamroll from there.  

“It was Steve Tuttle who really made the difference, because Steve and I laid out how much it would cost to rebuild the old building and he came up with the final number of $2.4 million – and we’d still have a 50-year-old building,” Brown said. “We talked to other contractors in the area and they said they could build a new building for $1.4 million or $1.5 million. To me, it was a no-brainer.” 

Brown’s involvement didn’t end there. He drew up the original architectural concept for the new clubhouse and continued to serve as a volunteer consultant throughout construction. The new building opened in June.  

“I think it turned out absolutely perfect,” Brown said. “It couldn’t be any better if I asked for it.” 

He also consulted on the police and administration building renovations, which finished this year. Each of the projects finished ahead of schedule and on or below budget.  

Recently, Brown said Association President Larry Perrone and Vice President Colette Horn approached him about filling the vacancy created by Tuttle’s retirement.  

“They’re people that I respect, and they suggested I might try it,” Brown said. “I sort of like to stay behind the scenes and I’m not a guy that likes to jump out [front] all the time and has a lot of opinions about things, but they said, ‘It won’t be too bad. You’ll be fine.’ 

“When the opportunity came up I said, ‘If you guys want to support me on it, I’ll do it for the nine months and see how it goes.’ If it goes well, then I might consider it further. But I haven’t made any commitments to anybody about that,” he added.  

During the next nine months, Brown said he would focus on improving amenity performance. 

“I want to make sure that they’re the best that they can be, and right now I think they are,” he said. “There are a few things that need some more help and I’d be someone who would support any amenity. I support them all, because I think that’s what’s important about Ocean Pines: a great a list of varying amenities that go to a wide list of people, not just golfers or tennis players or swimmers.” 

“That’s what makes this community one of the best around, and certainly the best around here because I’ve checked them all out,” Brown continued. “To me, Ocean Pines, by far, was the best choice.”