Scholarship Memorial for Cristy Brown

We are raising funds to create an endowed named scholarship at Utah State University in honor of Cristy's life and love of the Arts.

Endowed named scholarships are invested in the university’s endowment pool so they can be awarded in perpetuity. They can be named by the donor and established with a $25,000 minimum gift, either outright or pledged over a maximum of five years.

We will be titling the scholarship:

Cristy Brown Scholarship for the Arts.

Words about Cristy Anne Brown.

A spirit of pure nurturing grace and wisdom

A bright light glowing within beautiful brown eyes that sparkled like the fullest moon in the sky

A courageous wild child

A beloved mother, wife, lover, sister, grandmother, aunt, and friend

With the deepest sorrow, we report that our dear mother succumbed to multiple health-related complications on July 23, 2024 after being admitted to the University of Utah Hospital on July 8th for a medical emergency. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all of her visitors and the healthcare professionals that cared for her during this harrowing experience.

Cristy cherished the small and seemingly insignificant moments of life. If you were fortunate enough to experience one of these with her, it transformed you into a seeker of ephemeral small delights. For example, when hosting sleepovers for her granddaughters, she’d walk them out to greet the morning and exclaim “Hello, sun!”

She loved to find zen (be it a nice rock, comfy patio chair, tree swing, or toes in the water) where she’d soak in the moment. She had a zest for life, enjoyed rich conversations, warm hugs of love, novelty bites, adrenaline-fueled adventures, a care-free dance, dirty hands in the garden, storytellings, and travel.

Empathy was Cristy’s most prominently displayed virtue. She was nicknamed “Little Sobba” by her brothers and sisters because she deeply felt the heartwarming or sorrowful emotions of those around her. She retained this quality her whole life and passed it on to her children. We feel extremely grateful to have inherited this from her as it has been an orienting force for our moral compasses.

Her infectious spirit of adventure was evident when she was a girl which gained her a tribe or “entourage” (as her dad would say) because her guidance and fun-loving energy was easily felt by all. She gained friends in every facet of her life. She was our truest friend, someone we always wanted to hang out with.

She loved taking care of others. As a teen, she tended for many families in her North Salt Lake Neighborhood. She always loved holding babies, and took the opportunity to care for them. Her love of caring for others translated to her being a fantastic mother and grandmother, setting an exceptional example for those in her life.

Cristy took great pride in her Scandinavian roots, often speaking fondly of her family at home and abroad. Her mother’s story was especially formative for her (Maj-Britt immigrated on her own to the US from Sweden in 1953 at the age of twenty-one), instilling a bold can-do attitude. Mom attributed her success to this (at least in part) and she found it important to shape this quality into her children. With pride, mom told us of the time she approached a CEO working in a Salt`Lake City high-rise and landed a job by saying something similar to, “I want to work in the tallest building in this city, I would like a job.” The fierce determination she showed with that choice led to many accomplishments.

She started her career as an executive assistant at Access Long Distance and worked her way up the corporate ladder to become an executive herself. Cristy held the position as Vice President of Carrier Relations at Five9, a silicon valley tech and telecommunications company that remains integral to global business. Over her career, Cristy fostered company growth and maintained meaningful business relationships with vendors, clients, and colleagues.

In spite of her professional success, Cristy was an outstanding mother and companion. Being exceptional in many roles is difficult for most people to accomplish. We want everyone to know how proud of her we are for this and the grit she displayed because it was often necessary for her to sideline her own comfort to meet our childhood needs.

She shared the world with us. From her own pocket, we got to experience broad places with her. She greatly valued quality time with the people in her life. Especially “fun times” with her love, best friend, and husband Bart. The two were partners in crime.

You are painted in our sky, sweet Cristy. You are free now to “just dance.”

Cristy was born in Logan, Utah on September 28, 1968 to her parents Karin Maj-Britt and Lionel Brown. Survived by mother Maj-Britt, husband Bart Crowther, daughter Camille Zesiger, son Cody Zesiger (sp. Alexandra), Granddaughters Liliaceae and Juniper Zesiger, sisters Karen Debirk (sp. Larry), Lisa Isom (sp. Ron), brothers Dave Brown (sp. Janine), Greg Brown (sp. Christy), stepdaughter Ciera Crowther, stepsons Kash Crowther, Cruz Crowther, Kyle Anderson.