Remembering Mike Brown

Mike Brown, who directed communications for the Cathedral Project and later for the Diocese of Oakland, died on Feb. 21, 2021, peacefully at home in Cupertino. He was 73.

Mr. Brown, a respected public relations and communications director in the Bay Area for more than a half-century, had retired Jan. 31, 2021, as communications director for the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

At the North American Catholic Media Convention last year, Mr. Brown was named Communications Director of the Year by his peers.

He began working for the Cathedral Project when the Cathedral of Christ the Light was under construction, being named communications director for the project in 2006.

The cathedral opened in 2008; that same year, Mr. Brown was named communications director for the Diocese of Oakland. He remained in that role until July 2015, when he moved across the bay to become communications director of the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

Michael Collins Patrick Brown, a graduate of the University of San Francisco, began his career in 1968 as a copy boy for the San Francisco Chronicle.

In his career, he served as director of alumni relations and university communications for the University of San Francisco and corporations such as Southern Pacific Railroad, Fleishman Hillard and Consolidated Freightways, directing strategic communications and managing chaotic situations with ease and calm. Mike was a founding partner at Brown and Raleigh, a public relations firm, before joining the Diocese of Oakland. Mike's devotion to the Catholic Church and his spiritual life sustained him.

He is survived by his wife, Kathy, two daughters, two sons and seven grandchildren.

His funeral was held on Feb. 24, 2021 at St. Raymond Church in Menlo Park. Donations may be made in his memory to Catholic Charities.