LAGUNA NIGUEL : Honoree to Share Credit With Wife

Recognition as Citizen of the Year is something that Rice Brown cannot celebrate without his wife, Jan.

Brown, an entrepreneur and successful fund-raiser for the South Coast YMCA and South Coast Medical Center, canceled his scheduled appearance at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting to receive his award because his wife was unable to show up.

“I cannot do all the things I do without her,” Brown said later.

Jan Brown, 51, and Rice Brown, 54, last year ran a campaign that raised $179,000 to help those who cannot afford a full membership to the YMCA or pay for child-care services there.

“We have a huge number of families in South County which need to have someone look after their kids before or after school but cannot pay for it,” Rice Brown said. “We are really the funding arm for young people and adults who cannot pay their way.”

The Browns will orchestrate that YMCA campaign again this year-- with aspirations of raising $260,000.

In addition, Rice Brown is the president of Winner’s Circle, a booster organization for the South Coast Medical Center in Laguna Beach. He contributed his talents to the raising of about $130,000 for the hospital last year.

He is also a director of Monarch Bank and a member of the Laguna Niguel Chamber of Commerce, and in 1990 was chairman of the city’s Special Events Committee.

While on that committee, Brown was one of the founders of the city’s annual Holiday Parade and Christmas decorating contest.

Brown’s talents stretch beyond the realm of fund raising. He is also known for his singing, which he displays regularly at Laguna Niguel Rotary Club meetings and during the Christmas season, when his organization, the Orange County Life Underwriters Assn., invites about 500 Head Start schoolchildren from Santa Ana for a party.

“We have a Santa Claus and ice cream and gifts. I am the song leader,” Brown said. “I seem to be the only one who has the guts to get up in front of everybody and do it.”

Brown and his wife moved to Laguna Niguel eight years ago from Topeka, Kan. After establishing a financial planning and life insurance business out of his home, Brown began his involvement in community organizations.

Last year he was co-chairman of Laguna Niguel Councilwoman Patricia C. Bates’ unsuccessful campaign for the state Assembly and Mayor Thomas W. Wilson’s successful bid for reelection to the City Council.

“Sometimes we get a little overboard,” Brown admits. “When I would call up people, they didn’t know if I was raising money for the YMCA or one of the candidates, or the Winner’s Circle.”

Brown said he will pause in his busy schedule to appear with his wife at the Jan. 19 City Council meeting to finally receive his Citizen of the Year recognition.