Staff reporter Katie Stonesifer sits down with upper school faculty member, Peter Brown to answer one question; How in the world did he get to Menlo School? Photo by Douglas Peck.

By Katie Stonsifer

Global Programs and Studies Coordinator, Knight School Coordinator, and Upper School History teacher Peter Brown has been all over the world before he ended up as a teacher for Menlo School. Originally from Queens, he left the city at 18 to attend Colgate University. During a study abroad program in college, he got the opportunity to travel to Rhodesia in Africa, right after their Civil War, meet the Zambian president at the time, and many of the cabinet members. During this time, when he wasn’t studying at his new University, he taught agriculture at a small all girls school in the suburbs of Zambia.

After graduating from college, he roamed around Europe for a while. “I traveled in Europe after college with friends of mine, got an interrail pass and traveled all around Europe, Spain, France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, what was then called Yugoslavia,” Brown said. After becoming too ill to travel while in Yugoslavia, his friends left him and Brown stayed there for awhile before eventually travelling down to visit a friend in Greece. He lived there for a year, working at an English daily newspaper. After his time in Europe, he returned to New York City until he decided he needed a change. Driving across the country, his car broke down in Berkeley, which he credited as a sign to stay in the Bay Area.

Living with friends in the East Bay, he began working with kids on alternative learning techniques at Charles Armstrong School. He worked there for four years as a basketball coach, director of the school plays, English teacher, history teacher, government teacher, and math teacher, filling many open jobs.

“I felt that after four years at Armstrong I was burnt out teaching.” He thought he was going to move onto another career path, so when an opportunity at Menlo opened up, he didn’t think he was going to take it. However, as he learned more about the school, he grew increasingly interested and was excited to originally take a spot as a middle school English teacher. Now an ideology teacher, he has taught numerous subjects and contributed to the Menlo community in countless ways.

Throughout his journey, music has always been an essential part of his life. “I have always loved music, as far back as I can remember, and when I was in my teens and twenties I tried to organize much of my life to maximize the music in it.” In high school he played the clarinet. In college, he joined an acapella group and even got to sing the National Anthem at the Super Bowl. In his twenties, he worked as a DJ, and then later at a record company. 

However, in the past years keeping up his music while teaching has proved to be difficult. “For years, I struggled to do justice to both my work here and to keep writing and playing songs at the same time.” Although he now mostly plays for friends, he was able to compose an album for the public. “It’s a compilation of my own songs, mainly about love, loss, and politics, and many that I had carried with me for years, and that I felt needed some kind of permanence and wider airing.” Overall, Peter Brown is a multitalented individual that Menlo is lucky to have.