Erend Gene Brown O'Quinn

The Reverend Gene Brown O’Quinn, 87 died peacefully at Vista Park Memory Care Center in Petersburg, Virginia on Thursday April 16, 2015. He was born in Jefferson County, Alabama February 17, 1928 the youngest of nine children born to the union of Thomas Osborn O’Quinn and Margaret Brown O’Quinn. He is survived by his wife of 66 years, Thelma Irene McCarty O’Quinn. He is also survived by his youngest son, the Reverend Doctor James Gordon (Jim) O’Quinn and Jim’s wife the Reverend Doctor Dorothy McNeer O’Quinn and their three sons Blair Christian O’Quinn, Payne Carter O’Quinn and Vaughn Cameron O’Quinn. His last surviving sibling, Samuel Allen (Sam) O’Quinn lives in Warner Robins, Georgia. Following the death of Brown and Thelma’s oldest son, Robert Edward (Bob) O’Quinn in 2001, he moved to Chesterfield, Virginia.
Brown, as he was known by friends, was shaped by the death of his father (Big Daddy) in 1938. Along with brothers and sisters, he helped provide for his mother (Big Mama) until she died in 1965. He worked shining shoes, carrying newspapers, and later in grocery stores to keep food on the family table. The depression and World War II were difficult times for his family. He graduated from Jones Valley High School in 1946.
Brookhaven Methodist Church which was located in Powderly, Alabama helped him become receptive to a call to pastoral ministry. He was licensed to preach in 1951. He attended Birmingham-Southern College (class of 1955) and Chandler School of Theology, Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia (1958). He was an ordained Elder in the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church. He was appointed to serve churches from 1951 until his retirement in 1990. Counting his appointment to circuits of churches, Reverend O’Quinn served twenty-five congregations as their minister. In 1957, he was named “Pastor of the Year” for the North Alabama Conference as a second-year seminarian serving five rural Churches with five building programs going on at the same time. After moving to Virginia, he became an affiliate member of the Virginia Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church.
It was Reverend O’Quinn’s passion to mentor men and women called to ministry. He wanted new ministers to have the foundational resources to be good preachers. He gifted aspiring ministers with his experiences in ministry as well as sets of The Interpreter’s Bible Commentary and provided them with a scholarly translation of the Bible and The United Methodist Book of Worship. He quietly solicited money from family and friends, offering to pay half the cost for his latest “new minister” project. In retirement, he volunteered at the University of Alabama and during Desert Storm worked at the VA Hospital in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He served as a pastor in four additional appointments after his formal retirement including three located in Virginia. His call to ministry remained strong throughout his life. Even as his mind was lost to Alzheimer’s disease, Reverend O’Quinn imagined he was starting a new Church or he had to rush to “help somebody” nearby.
Accomplishments, community service, education, religion, and virtue were important to him. He enjoyed classical music and opera. His theology was “social-gospel” and he possessed a strong personal desire to live ethically and righteously. Brown O’Quinn was a man who held his own opinion securely. He would stand his ground refusing to compromise even at the cost of a church, family, personal, or public opinion. He was a good man, but like all, he was imperfect in life. Gene Brown O’Quinn has been made perfect through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
A Witness to the Resurrection will be held at J.T. Morriss & Son Chapel in Petersburg on Friday, April 24th at 3:00 PM with the Reverend Joseph T. Carson, III officiating. Visitation with friends and family will be Thursday 6-8 PM also at the funeral home. A Chapel Service for Alabama family and friends will be May 1st at 2:00 PM (Central Time) at Elmwood Chapel in Birmingham, Alabama. Interment of Ashes will take place in Elmwood Cemetery.
Memorial for Brown O’Quinn may be made to The West Dinwiddie Charge, “Build a House for Haiti” Project and sent to P.O. Box 6 Church Road, Virginia 23833 or to the Faison School for Autism, Development Fund 1701 Byrd Avenue, Richmond, VA 23230. Condolences may be registered online at www.jtmorriss.com .