For Don Brown, service is about loving your community and taking advantage of opportunities.

“I’m very proud of the community, and my whole life is about service,” the deputy executive director of Warren-Yazoo Mental Health said. “I think that’s what I was called to do because of an or because other people saw something in me and gave me the opportunity to serve.”

Some of that desire to serve, he said, came from his parents.

“My mother was an educator for 40 years in the county school system, and my father worked at Anderson-Tully pretty much as a laborer for 40 years. My father has a lot of social worker in him. He was out in they community helping people all the time,” he said. “My mother’s focus was education; make sure you got your education. Coming out of high school, you had no choice. You knew you’re going to college.”

But back in his youth, Brown had one ambition.

“I played sports in high school,” he said. “I played baseball. I thought my thing was to be a professional baseball player; that’s what I wanted to be.”

Baseball earned him a nickname, “Quickbat” — a name derived from a teammate watching his swing saying, “look at that quick bat,” and a scholarship to Alcorn State University in Lorman, where he was also involved with student council and a social club called the Cavaliers.

Brown has been with Warren-Yazoo for 33 years, and has worked in some area of social service for 40, starting with his first job out of college at the Vicksburg early education center for children with learning disabilities. He also worked at the state Department of Human Services and Employment Security before going to Warren Yazoo in 1983.

“I’ve worked every job from the front line to now being deputy executive director,” he said.

And he has always been involved in the community on board and advisory councils. He was recently appointed to the Warren County Port Commission.

“What got me prepared for that is membership in the Vicksburg-Warren County Chamber of Commerce,” he said, adding when he first joined, some people questioned the decision.

“People asked me, why are you getting involved with them? They’re not really interested in your community, meaning the black community, because the chamber was always seen as male, big industry, and controlled by that group,” he said. “The attraction was I wanted to be able to know what’s going on; to be able to have a voice there.

“I’ve always tried to get to the table. I’ve always tried to be involved and know. Not hear about it, but to know.”

Brown later became a member of the board of directors and was elected board president three times, in 2002 and 2003, and 2014. The organization’s first black president, and its only member to hold the office back-to-back since 1945.

“I tried to get other African-Americans involved,” he said, adding one of his forst acts as president was to get more minority chamber members involved in the organization.

“The chamber does a lot of great work in trying to support the businesses here, and I think it’s a good barometer of how many people belong to your chamber and how active they are in the community, and it just helps us economically and helps draw other businesses,” he said. “During my term, there were probably more women and blacks on the board than any time before”

Another effort he took on was getting funds to determine if the city would support a public transportation system.

“When I grew up as a child, I remember being with my grandmother and getting on the bus here,” he said. “And all of a sudden in the mid 60s, they went away. I couldn’t figure out why.”

The studies led the way for the development of NRoute, the city’s public transportation system.

“The chamber applied with the CTTAA for a grant to have a short term feasibility study for public transportation in Vicksburg, and when we got that we asked for a long-term feasibility study for that, then brought in MDOT and then mayor Laurence Leyens was on board, and brought in local leaders and we were able to take off from there.

“In 2006, the first buses started running.” A member of NRoute’s Board of Commissioners, Brown said he feels good the city was able to bring public transportation back.

“There are a lot of people benefitting from that service, and I know sometimes people don’t see any kind of numbers as far as the ridership, but the quality of life has improved for a lot of people as a result of it being here, “Brown said. “It’s well worth its while.”

He also served as a United Way of West Central Mississippi volunteer until Warren-Yazoo became an agency. “I kind of stepped way, because I couldn’t be a donor and a recipient, he said.

He was also a member and former president of the Exchange Club, which sponsors the Child and Parenting Center, and served on the CAP Center Board.

He also serves on the Mississippi State Personnel Board and the state Mental Health Association. He was recently appointed to the state College Saving Board.

Looking at his job at Warren-Yazoo, Brown said, “I tell people you have to be called to this kind of work. If you’re not called to it, you’re to going to last very long, It’s almost like a ministry; like being called to service.”

He said Warren-Yazoo has grown since he began in 1983, and now provides more services to help address needs in the community with programs for children and the elderly.

“It’s a greater need than just serving the mentally ill or providing programs for alcohol and drug treatment,” he said. “I started as an assistant in the partial hospital program; then case manager, going in the field to visit, and edwas appoint direct of alcohol and drug program, the Belmont Program.”

He was named Warren County director in 1988.

“Most of the people in leadership roles here have been here a long time,” he said. “That stability has helpd out. This is a great group people to work with; people who want the same thing I want — to improve the quality of life of the people I serve.”