Club member Michael Charlson Browne passed away on 9 June 2023, peacefully at Te Hopai Home and Hospital, aged 92 years.
You are welcome to attend a service to celebrate Michael’s life at the Cockburn Street Chapel, corner Cockburn St and Onepu Rd, Kilbirnie, Wellington, on Friday 16 June, 11am. A livestream will also be available.
Michael joined Scottish towards the late 1940s, together with his Eastbourne pal, Neil Dobbie, and they battled each other for both club and centre junior titles. (Much like our later Eastbourne champions, Roger Wyatt and Grant Wheeler). He won the 1948 junior Dorne Cup and the Vosseler in 1949. He became a talented middle-distance track athlete, renowned for his classical “English” style, winning the Wellington senior mile title in 1956. He then went to England on an art scholarship, which led to a lifetime as a successful professional artist. A member of the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts he won the Governor-General Art Award in 2017.
After many years living overseas, he and Jenny returned to Wellington in 1990, and he resumed his athletic career. Embracing the veterans’ movement he competed for many years, well into his mid-80s – resulting in the affectionate title of “Methuselah” – the biblical patriarch reputed to have lived for 969 years! He won the 2011 New Zealand 80 plus road title, and he was also an official at Newtown Park.
Michael currently holds the following Wellington age grade records:
- M80 — 800m, 3:59.55
- M85 — 800m, 6:13.16
- M85 — 1500m, 12:27.77
- M85 — Mile, 11:16.00
By Alan Stevens
Wellington Scottish Athletics Club 
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