WILDER — Inge Brown, a German-born engineer and world traveler spent the final decade of her life sharing the lessons she had learned from a lifetime of passionate learning to the Upper Valley community any and every way she could.
She taught courses annually at Dartmouth’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute for nearly a decade. Throughout the Upper Valley, she led hikes with the Green Mountain Club. Until the end of her life, she continued to travel the world, constantly sparking new connections, which she shared with her extensive network of friends and students in Vermont and New Hampshire.
Brown died last August at the age of 91. “She was proud of her age,” said Lisa King, who has been the director of Osher since 1995. “But in a good way, she didn’t act her age.”
Brown’s friends and community remember her as a persistent, straightforward, boisterous woman, a great friend and an avid pursuer of what she cared about.
“She knew the ways of the world, had been to a lot of places; had seen a lot of things,” her friend and former student Dave Smith said. “She took every possible advantage of her time here, and she was not at all cheated by life.”
Brown’s long life had many different phases. Born in Uelzen, Germany in 1934, Brown’s childhood was spent amid the turmoil of World War II. In 1949, following her parents’ divorce and the end of the war, Brown, her mother, and her younger brother, Peter, moved to England. There, Brown continued her education at Luton University, where she studied engineering.
“At that time in England, girls weren’t allowed to study engineering,” said Kathy Astraukas, who worked alongside Brown at the Green Mountain Club. “In Inge’s telling, though, she made them let her study it.”
Brown’s trailblazing as a female engineer didn’t seem to sap her energy, though — at the same time, she cared for her mother and family, staying fit as a runner and swimmer all the while. She remained close with her brother and eventually, his wife, for the rest of her life.
Pursuit of engineering took Brown from London Polytechnic to Westminster University, where she earned an MBA, as well as varied jobs in engineering. Working as a consultant, Brown travelled often and eventually landed in the United States. She first moved to New Jersey to take on work as the manager of the Verax corporation, which provides semiconductor engineering services. She then went to Michigan, where she married engineer Robert Brown in 1967.
Two years later, and back in New Jersey, Brown gave birth to a daughter, Natara (formerly Shirley) Brown. The family then moved to Norwich in 1976.
Inge and Robert separated in 1984. After the divorce, Inge Brown “made a deliberate choice to stay in the Norwich area,” according to Annie Janeway, whose mother, Claude Laumont, became close with Brown in the 1980s and introduced her to the Green Mountain Club. Brown had become so tightly connected with her friends in the area that she considered them family. “She literally referred to me as her ‘substitute daughter,’ ” said Janeway.
In Vermont, Brown soon switched away from engineering to work with the language department of Dartmouth. There, she was placed in the German Department, but soon moved up to be the assistant director, then the director of The Rassias Center.
In 1990, Brown worked at the Tuck School at the International University of Japan business school, living there for three months. Along with her native German and English, she also became proficient in Japanese. This skill in language allowed Brown’s conviviality to cast an even wider net. “She cultivated friendships all over the world,” said Astraukas. “She was very friendly, interested in everybody, and not shy.”
Brown’s love of travel meshed well with her position at Dartmouth. However, after she retired from her position at The Rassias Center, her journeys around the world only increased. “She loved being in the sun and warmth of Saint Martin, Panama,” said Janeway.
Relaxation wasn’t the only thing propelling Brown’s travels, though. “She was very curious about archeology, ancient civilizations, cultures from centuries ago, and world affairs. She had an interest in how other people lived and how they were organized — their crafts, how they lived their lives.” said Janeway. Brown chose out-of-the way destinations in order to fulfill her curiosity on these topics.
One example of this is a trip that she took to Mongolia in her 70s. She joined a tour group that travelled around the country for several weeks learning about it. “They went to a lot of places and learned a lot of things,” said Smith. “And she retained all of it.”
Brown was also part of an international timeshare community. “She had them all over the place, and would trade them,” said Astraukas.
Brown often took friends along with her on trips. Astraukas travelled with her to a timeshare in Virginia. “She enticed me, saying she would shuttle me around to my Appalachian trail hikes while she went on smaller hikes or to the pool. She was very generous.”
Upon her return from big trips, Brown would make travel videos to present to her friends. “She took a lot of photos,” said Janeway. “She would put them to music and add captions. She just documented everything and spent a lot of time editing.”
When she wasn’t abroad, Brown lived alone in her house in Sterling Springs, a residential neighborhood in Wilder. Travel magnets covered the fridge; international statuettes and specialty plates were displayed tastefully around. Brown owned “a couple hundred” CDs of classical and opera music, Smith said. “Whenever I was over at the house, she had opera playing,” Smith remembered fondly.
Brown’s home became a renowned place for friends to gather. She was a skilled cook and took joy in sharing her talents. Her dinner parties “always had the right china,” according to Janeway. “There are few people who entertain on this scale on a regular basis, even for a small group of friends,” she said.
Early in her involvement with the Green Mountain Club Ottauqueechee Chapter, Brown was invited to the club’s New Year’s Eve party. Soon after, she took on the job of hosting it. “She loved parties,” remembered Janeway. “She was social and elegant, but not stuffy.”
The parties featured puzzles, games and plentiful food — Inge’s signature dish was smoked salmon and capers on a baguette, but for New Year’s, she would cook a huge fish or even a goose. Afterward, there would be cross-country skiing in the dark. As members of the club got older, this turned into a snowy hike under the stars. The parties went late: “She insisted that people be there to ring in the new year,” said Janeway.
The Green Mountain Club was one of the places where Brown was most present in her later years. In her late 70s, she served as the chapter president for three years. During that time and after, she led weekly hikes. “She would say, ‘put me down for every Tuesday of the year!’” said Astraukas, who manages the hiking schedule. “The only time she wouldn’t lead a hike is when she was travelling.”
As Brown got older, she was able to do less rigorous hikes, but still stayed involved. “She would still do smaller hikes until they just became one or two miles on a dirt road,” said Astraukas. “But we were grateful to her — someone has to do the small stuff!”
When Brown passed, her leadership at the Green Mountain Club was greatly missed. Astraukas said that without Brown’s hikes, the club’s printed newsletter, which contains the upcoming schedule, halved in length.
Brown’s varied interests also led her to become involved in Dartmouth’s Osher program, which provides education for adults.
At first, Brown was, according to Smith, “pretty much a fixture” at Osher’s summer lecture series. “I’d say, ‘Is Inge here?’ and then I’d see her white hair down in the front row,” said Smith, who met her at a luncheon after one of the talks.
In 2017, Brown volunteered to be a study leader for the program. Her first course was about the lost worlds of the Mayan and Aztec people. After the success of this class, she continued to teach courses which highlighted the breadth of her knowledge, covering topics from geology to Genghis Khan. She taught a course every spring until she “lost count,” according to her biography on the Osher website.
The courses Brown offered got excellent reviews, according to her online Osher biography. One anonymous participant’s testimony reads, “Inge always had just that little bit of extra information to bring the topic alive.”
Brown’s travels featured heavily in her teaching. Smith, who took two of her classes, recalled one course focusing on “The Mysterious East” of Mongolia. During the course, Brown brought in traditional scarves she had collected, and a jar of Gobi desert sand. “She spent several days preparing this traditional Mongolian stew for the class. It was one of the most incredible things I’ve ever tasted,” said Smith.
Along with teaching about her own travel experiences, Brown also created travel opportunities for her students through Osher. She designed a study-travel course to explore South America. “When most travel companies go to a place, they have a set itinerary, but Inge wanted to do a custom itinerary. She spent a lot of time working with the travel company,” said Lisa King, Osher’s director.
In 2018, Brown led a group of 15 students on a 10-day trip exploring Mayan ruins. Planning for the study trip took 18 months. “She was just so giving of her time and she was passionate about the things she did,” said King. “She didn’t just slide by. She was all in.”
Brown continued to be an Osher instructor until the winter of 2025. According to Smith, she was as sharp as ever during her last course on Mongolia. “Even when she had trouble with wordfinding, all the information was there,” he said.
That winter and spring, Brown suffered two strokes. Her many friends came to her assistance. Smith, who visited her weekly after her first hospitalization, realized she had never been on any kind of medication before. “I would help her take it and do the paperwork. Then one day, I showed up and she had done it herself,” said Smith.
Unfortunately, Brown’s health never fully recovered from the strokes. Though her mental facilities stayed clear, she realized she did not have much time left.
“Don’t be sad,” King said Brown told her when she went to visit her for the final time. “I’ve lived a good life.”