Introducing Keith Lionel Brown
Keith Lionel Brown was born on the evening of Friday, 17 October 1958, in what was then the small town of Salisbury, Maryland, in what was then known as the Salisbury Hospital. He is the second oldest of four children born to the late John Wallace Brown and the late Frances Mae Harmon Brown. He has one older brother and two younger sisters and was raised Baptist.
Keith graduated from Wicomico Senior High School in his hometown of Salisbury in June 1976. His favorite subjects in school were math and foreign languages. He also enjoyed writing research papers. He studied Latin for a year and Spanish for five years and tied for fifth place in a national Spanish exam competition while in high school. After high school, he attended Delaware Technical & Community College in Georgetown, Delaware, where he earned an A.A.S. degree in Data Processing Technology in June 1979. Wanting to continue his studies in foreign languages, and having a love for the Bible, he later decided to take two semesters of Biblical Hebrew and two semesters of Biblical Greek.
In March 1981, Keith left home and joined the Navy. He served for 20 years on active duty and 10 years in the inactive fleet reserve, for a total of 30 years of service (exactly half of his young life). He was honorably discharged and his name was added to the United States Navy Retired list on 1 September 2010.
While serving on active duty he had the opportunity to attend a Baptist Bible College in Norfolk, Virginia, where he was studying to become a Baptist minister. He actually met and studied with Latter-day Saint missionaries prior to leaving home and going to Navy boot camp in San Diego, California. However, it was not until 1997, when he was stationed in Keflavik, Iceland, that he took an interest in learning more about the Church. He met with missionaries for about a year and told them that he would not be baptized until he had read the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price in their entirety. He was inspired to create a 40-day reading calendar to complete the task. He has since shared the reading calendar online with people around the world. Keith was baptized on Tuesday, 10 March 1998, in Reykjavik, Iceland. He was confirmed a member of the Church on Sunday morning, 22 March 1998.
Keith is an avid student of the scriptures and says that of all the callings that he has had in the past 22 years, his favorite callings have been teaching Sunday School to the youth and teaching Gospel Doctrine class. He also enjoyed teaching the Missionary Preparation class for the stake. He has served in leadership positions, including three bishoprics (as a first and second counselor), first counselor in the Young Men’s Presidency (ward level), Stake High Council, High Priest Group Leader, Ward Mission Leader, and currently serves as the first counselor in the Elders Quorum Presidency and Assistant Building Coordinator.
Keith is also an avid lover of books and has a rather sizable library of books at home on many different subjects. He is also an avid student of the scriptures and to date has read the Bible 10 times in its entirety, the Book of Mormon 10 times, and the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price 13 times in their entirety. In 2018, he made it his life goal to read each of the sacred volumes of scripture in their entirety every year.
He is also a firm believer in achieving the best education possible and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Marketing, a Master’s degree in Business Administration, and a Master’s degree in Business Finance.
In April 2019, at the age of 60, he felt inspired to start sharing his life story through music. His first original song called “Song of My Heart” was released on 12 April 2019. The lyrics of the song have now been translated into French and Spanish. His second original song called “The Memories Live On,” a special tribute to his mother was released on Valentine’s Day, 14 February 2020. Both songs are currently played on a Christian radio station in the Philippines. He is currently working on his next two songs - “Thy Word in My Heart” and a special tribute song to his father called “No More Regrets.”
Keith says that his ultimate goal is to finally write his life story. The title that he would use for his autobiography is “Blessed Assurance: This Is My Story.”
