Mary Rose Brown, who helped shape Haven for Hope, dies at 68 (2024)

Business executive and community volunteer Mary Rose Brown, remembered as a “servant leader” by her friends and colleagues, died Friday surrounded by family at her home in San Antonio. She was 68 years old and had been fighting an illness for several months.

As executive vice president and chief administrative officer ofNuStar Energy, Brown played an instrumental role alongside founder and chair William “Bill” Greehey in establishing Haven for Hope, the city’s largest homeless shelter and resource hub on San Antonio’s near West Side.

Opened in 2010, Haven serves about 1,600 people every day and become a national model for homeless services.

“She was immensely proud of that,” said Barbara Gentry, the current chair of Haven’s board of directors and Brown’s longtime friend. “If Mary Rose was involved, you knew it was going to be done well and successful — and you’re going to have fun along the way.”

But what she was most proud of was her three children, said Taylor Brown, her eldest son.

Despite the demands of her high-powered career, “Garrett, Kirsten and I grew up knowing that we were cherished and we never doubted it for a second,” he said. “The only caveat is that we may have been usurped when the [eight] grandkids came along.”

Brown was able to achieve so much because she followed a “be here now” mantra, Gentry said. That means living in the moment, she said. “Wherever you are, that’s the most the important thing that you’re doing.”

Born and raised in a Catholic household in San Antonio, Brown’s “faith has been a central pillar of her entire life,” Taylor Brown said. “And so I was raised with her showing me not just telling me” how to serve Christ.

She would take her kids to volunteer at Habitat for Humanity and the San Antonio Food Bank to volunteer with her, he said. And the family continues to volunteer regularly and donate to various organizations, including Haven for Hope.

Despite being sick over the last several months, she spent a lot of quality time with her newest grandchildren: Twins born in Feburary, he said. “She just loved hugging on those kids and feeding the babies and helping with bedtime routine.”

For her birthday last month, friends, family and colleagues gathered to celebrate the newly renamed Mary Rose Brown Chapel of Hope at Haven. They had raised $15,000 in her honor to distribute in $100 H-E-B cards to single mothers who are leaving Haven for their own housing so they could “enjoy a very nice family meal,” Gentry said. “That would have been so important to Mary Rose.

“… So often you do things for someone after they have passed and we’re just thrilled that — both with the chapel and with the gift cards — that brought her great joy and pride in knowing.”

A culture of service

Brown earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from Texas State University and was recognized as one of the University’s Distinguished Alumni in 2015.

More than 30 years ago, she was an executive at the public relations firm Atkins Agency working on the campaign to convince voters to approve funding for the Alamodome — which was ultimately successful.

That’s when she met Greehey.

“She literally worked day and night, and sometimes all night, to make the campaign the success that it was,” Greehey wrote in a form nominating Brown for the 2022 San Antonio Business Hall of Fame — one of many recognitions and awards she received during her career. “So, the Final Fours, the football games, conventions and all of the other great events that have come to San Antonio because of the Alamodome wouldn’t have been possible without Mary Rose’s dedication and tenacity.”

It was a campaign that nearly drove her to quit, she said in a 2016 Q&A published by the San Antonio Business Journal.

“… [W]e were literally working 15 hours a day, seven days a week, which was fine, but I also had young children, so it was a stressful time,” she said at the time. “Right before Christmas, I overheard the out-of-town political consultant badmouthing me to my boss. I was devastated. Exhausted and feeling unappreciated, I just wanted to quit and go enjoy the holidays with my family. But I decided it was a better idea to prove I was good at my job by winning and then quit. Of course, we won and I didn’t quit and I ultimately went to work for The Alamodome Campaign Chairman, Bill Greehey, which was the best career move of my life.

“So as Churchill famously said, ‘Never Never, Never Give Up.’ Or as my mother not-so-famously said, ‘Be like the little frog drowning in a bucket of buttermilk. Just keep kicking until it turns into butter, and you can step out.’”

In 1997, Greehey hired Brown to lead the communications department at Valero and she moved to NuStar in 2007 when he company spun off from Valero.

“It was by far the best hire I’ve ever made,” Greehey wrote. “Mary Rose quickly became my most trusted advisor and she was involved in every strategic decision we made.”

Greehey attributes much of the company’s successes (NuStar was acquired by Sunoco in May) to Brown’s business acumen.

“But what Mary Rose may be best known for is her tremendous impact on our community,” he wrote.“Not only has she personally given back to our community, but she also has helped create NuStar’s caring and sharing culture.She has helped make NuStar a leader in United Way giving, with 100 percent participation, and the highest per capita gift in San Antonio and in most of the other communities where we have operations.Our employees also volunteer approximately 85,000 hours annually, and serve on about 100 nonprofit boards.”

Brown never bragged in public — and rarely to her family, Taylor Brown said, but she “bragged privately” about achieving 100% participation in United Way giving from employees.

Brown also served on many boards, including those for the Center for Health Care Services, Texas Business Hall of Fame, Women’s Leadership Council of United Way of San Antonio, San Antonio Parks Foundation, Girl Scouts of Southwest Texas and the Bexar County Performing Arts Center Board of Directors, which oversees the Tobin Center for the Arts.

“Mary Rose’s unwavering dedication, visionary leadership, and heartfelt commitment to our mission were pivotal in shaping the future of The Tobin Center,” the center posted on Instagram. “Her passion for the arts, coupled with her genuine warmth and kindness, made a lasting impact on all who had the privilege of knowing and working with her.”

Praise for Brown swirled on social media since news of her passing was posted by Haven on Sunday.

“She worked tirelessly to further the mission of nearly every nonprofit organization in San Antonio as she had the biggest heart and the most generous spirit,” the Greater San Antonio Chamber posted on X. “Mary Rose devoted her life to lifting up others, championing causes that mattered, and creating a space where everyone felt heard and valued. She truly was a servant leader and a San Antonio treasure!”

Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai said in a statement that “she was the engine” behind Haven. “Her legacy will be one of compassion, caring and consideration by providing leadership, a helping hand and a smile to everyone in her orbit.”

Mayor Ron Nirenberg called Mary Rose a “trailblazer who earned the deepest respect from everyone who encountered her in business and community service. I will treasure her friendship and fierce advocacy for the city and all of its residents, especially those who counted on her to be their voice.”

Former city manager Sheryl Sculley told the San Antonio Report, “Mary Rose was an inspiration to women and men. Even during her illness, she contacted me to help a former colleague.

“Beyond our work at Haven for Hope and United Way, my favorite memories of Mary Rose were at our travels to New York City for the Women in the World events that we also sponsored in San Antonio with NuStars support due to Mary Rose,” Sculley added. “In NYC we were known as the ‘Texas Women.’ She leaves behind a tremendous legacy of professionalism, philanthropy, and friendship.”