Jack Leader, shares reminiscences of his Newtonville neighbor George Brown who died this Wednesday.  Here’s George Brown’s obituary from the Boston Globe.

I grew up on the southern side of Newtonville, Atwood Avenue a short street with 5 two family multi-generational house each on one side, and single family with mother in law apartments on the other. And on that street were a rabbi, insurance brokers, carpenters, dental technicians, green grocers, truck drivers, and a visionary. There is a obit in Thursday’s Boston Globe on George Brown, long time resident of Newton, and a neighbor on Atwood Avenue, the street On which I grew up. He was the visionary. He was a trailblazer and somewhat eccentric as all visionary are.

I bring his name to your attention because George rode a bicycle to work long before it was either fashionable or seen as a solution. Long before Chuck Tanowitz could even walk.  Rain or snow, all year, on a bicycle that he purchased from Harris Cyclery. He rode through Newtonville, through Nonantum, to the path along the Charles River, the Dr. Paul Dudley White Path to downtown Boston. He counseled my father to order a new 3 speed Raleigh from Harris Cyclery to accommodate my father’s long legs,(he was 6’2”) along with mechanical, not cable brakes, and my mother Hannah at 88, still has her 3 speed, green and white Raleigh although she hasn’t ridden in years. George helped make those local community connections that made Newton what is was, and what we hope it will continue to be.