In Memoriam – Taylor Brown

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In Memoriam

Taylor Brown 1967-2020

In the midst of a global pandemic, we tragically and very suddenly lost a dear friend, fellow community activist in our local area and wonderful board member. We honour him here.

Taylor joined Playing Out as a Director in Oct 2017, bringing a huge wealth of knowledge and experience from his background in international development, supporting collaboration between government, civil society and the private sector to support public policy reform and social change. But impressive as that sounds (and is!) Taylor’s personal qualities were even more valuable and rare.

When our remaining board members met to honour him after his death, some of the words used were: thoughtful, questioning, never stressed, calming, focused presence, incredibly positive energy, “calm in a storm”, big picture, “he saw the forest and the trees”. Warm, open, generous.

Taylor always asked why we wanted to do something. He chaired meetings brilliantly and made helpful, insightful suggestions without ever imposing his views.

And alongside all this, Taylor was the absolute embodiment of community spirit. In the truest sense, he and his amazing wife Sam built a sense of extended family in the local community. As well as being generally great and generous neighbours, with their door always open to stray kids, they initiated and organised playing out on their street, making sure to try and bring everyone in – even those who were reluctant or a bit grumpy about the whole idea.

Children and adults alike adored Taylor, with his infectious grin, warm heart, flamboyant dress-sense and playful nature. We will miss him very much and aim to #BeMoreTB in all we do at Playing Out.