Belmore Haskell Browne

Belmore Haskell Browne, AKA Brock, Belm, Tickle-Me-Belmo, Hoss, Rocky, and words not fit to print; a man who called many places home, took his last breaths on September 17, 2021, at age 68. Reconciled with his maker after a long illness and a brief battle with COVID, Belmore joins his parents, George Browne and Isabel MacGregor Browne Robinson, his sister Isabel Browne Driscoll, brother MacGregor Robinson, and son-in-law Dylan Hansen Fransway. “Uncle Rocky” will be deeply missed by his nieces and nephews, his brothers Michael Guinn and James Robinson, his former wife Meredith Bidlack Browne, and only daughter Morrigan Haskell Browne. To his grandsons, Oren Fulton Browne and John Munger Browne, Rocky will be a legend.

Traditionally educated at Cardigan Mountain School, Kent School, and Lawrence University, Belmore’s favorite lessons happened outside the classroom. A descendant of artists and mountain men, Belmore was a true outdoorsman. He would have been born in Alberta, Canada like his sister if his mother hadn’t driven cross-continent to Norwalk, Connecticut in 1953, ensuring he would be eligible to be President of the United States. Raised with a fishing pole in one hand and a rifle in the other, Rocky spent his life carving the fat off the land. As a teenage cowboy in Wyoming, he ate a live mouse on a $100 bet. Belmore snorkeled on the Great Barrier reef and fished from Alaska to Patagonia. He was a barefoot sailor bouncing around the Bahamas and back up the Keys, an explorer digging through buckets of silver beads in the souqs of Oman. He was an entrepreneur seeking fortune, chasing sunken treasure in the waters off Cape Cod and the ponds of Downeast Maine, Chilean copper mines, and Argentinian soy. Those last two may be backward. It was often hard to keep up.

Well known for leaning on the support of friends and family during his own difficult times, Belmore was also renowned for his generosity and enterprise when he was flush. When friends lost their houseboat in a storm, he provided lodging, knowhow, and underwrote the build of a 42’ “Home Depot Catamaran” on Little Bay in Durham, NH. Many among his friends and family have a story, or five, they’ll tell fondly about “that time” Rocky arrived on their doorstep loaded up with a cooler of lobsters or a freshly caught fish, perhaps a 50lb bag of potatoes, case of wine and a carton of cigarettes. Bacchus in mortal form.

As top Bloviator of the Blowfish, if nothing else Belmore was unapologetically himself; charming, funny, so smart, and so flawed. It is a testament to his character that he was both welcomed and subsequently banned from many homes. Just as it is a testament to his character that every one of those homes will forever remember his light. If you are able, please consider donating to Chips House or Champs House. Eternal gratitude for all they do to help those in need, especially this boom and bust bon vivant.

Safe travels, and we’ll see you on the other side. Memorial Spring 2022. Details to follow.