Obituary of Claudia Rosalind Brown

Claudia was born and raised in Glendale California to Claude Chandler Brown and Pamela Harwood Brown.  Claudia's mother was a British war bride who left central England after the war to marry the dashing young Yank in uniform.  Claudia's dad was a proud WWII vet and lifelong furniture salesman who loved his family, town and country.   Claudia attended Hoover High in Glendale and matriculated to UCSC in 1968 - the 3rd class to attend the then new university - graduating with a BS in Theoretical Mathematics in 1973.  After a stint waitressing at the Crow's Nest in Santa Cruz Harbor, she joined IBM in the mid-seventies and became one of the first women IBM trusted to sell mainframe computers.  So began the storied career of a first generation high-tech Silicon Valley feminist.  At the apex of her career, Claudia was an executive vice president of Veritas Corporation, managing 350 people and 1/3 billion dollars in business for the then 6th largest software company by capital value.

She had two children by her first marriage.  In her early 50's she met the love of her life, Dave Evans, and they married in 2005.  They became empty nested of their 5 adult children and moved fulltime to Santa Cruz in 2006.  In Santa Cruz, Claudia pivoted from her very successful, glass ceiling shattering 35 year sales career in enterprise technology to local advocacy.  She became a conflict resolution mediator helping juveniles caught in the court system, then found her true second vocation as Board President of Housing Matters fiercely and effectively advocating solutions for homelessness through tireless leadership and effective bridge building across both private and public sectors.

Claudia loved gardening, color, opera, watercolor painting, and extensive worldwide travel enabled by her career and her bestselling author husband, but unquestionably her greatest joy was her family. 

She is survived by her husband Dave Evans and 9 children and their spouses and 9 grandchildren:  Gabriel and Nichole Aguilera of Corralitos and their sons Ignacio and Guillerma; Rosalind Aguilera of Cape Town, South Africa; David Evans the 5th and Dr. Kim Stone of Portola Valley and their sons Duke (Dave the 6th) and Kalen; Robert and Christine Evans of Menlo Park and their children Luke, Sadie, and Teddy; and Lisa and Donald Hanle of Sunnyvale and their children Daniel and Tori.  She is further survived by her two beloved brothers: Roderick and Barbara Brown and their sons Kendrick and Weston of Piedmont, and Christopher Brown of Los Angeles, as well as by Gabriel & Rosalind's father and wife Walter Aguilera and Greta Gornnert of Real del Mar, Mexico with whom she fully reconciled to form a whole and unbroken family - one of her greatest accomplishments.

She had countless friends and impacted countless lives for the better. She will be duly missed and not soon forgotten.

In lieu of flowers or other condolences, please direct all responses toward donations to Housing Matters at housingmattersssc.org, 115B Coral Street, Santa Cruz CA 95060.