http://www.newarkadvocate.com/news/stories/20040101/obituaries/146936.html

Dirck W. Brown
June 14, 1928-Dec. 30, 2003


A memorial service for Dirck W. Brown will be held at 2 p.m. Friday at the
Robert E. Lee Memorial Episcopal Church. [that was Jan. 2, 2004]

Brown, a lifelong champion for the better of education, community and family,
died Dec. 30, 2003, of heart failure in Lexington, Va. He was 75 years old.

Brown moved to Lexington in 1992 and became an active and immediate
contributor to the community as he and his wife, Molly, co-founded the Roots
and Shoots Intergenerational School Garden program at Waddell Elementary
School. There is not a Waddell student graduate in the past 10 years who
hasn't spent time either in the classroom or garden with the Browns. The
garden has been nationally recognized as a model educational program, and the
Browns have documented and distributed the curriculum to other schools across
the country.

Born in Kansas City, June 14, 1928, Brown's parents were Dr. Kenneth I. Brown
and Muriel Handy Brown. He was raised in Hiram and Granville. In 1950, he
graduated from Denison University and entered the U.S. Army Signal Corps,
where he was a Second Lieutenant. He was stationed in Japan where he trained
troops during the Korean War.

After he was discharged in 1953, Brown earned a doctorate in education from
Columbia University Teachers College and went on to become Dean of Men at the
University of Iowa and Dean of Students at the University of Denver. From
1965 to 1978, Brown worked for the National Educational Association
(Washington, D.C. and Palo Alto, Calif.) to encourage college students to
enter teaching professions.

Throughout these years, Brown became involved in the issues surrounding
adoption, its life long impact, and the struggle to open birth records to
adoptees. These issues were near to his heart because of his own experiences
as an adoptee searching for his birth parents. In 1978, he resigned from the
NEA and returned to graduate school to earn a license in Marriage and Family
Therapy and founded the Post Adoption Center for Education and Research
(PACER) in Palo Alto, Calif.

PACEr, which began in the Browns' living room to provide support to adoptees,
adoptive parents and birth parents, quickly became the hub of adoption
research and counseling through Northern California, and led to the creation
of the national American Adoption Congress, a national organization that
fought for adoptee's rights.

From 1987-1992, the Browns lived in Orient, N.Y., where he was associated
with the Bridgehampton Counseling Center. In 1988, Brown co-authored
"Clinical Practices in Adoption," a book that grew out of the work he began
in PACER.

After Brown moved to Lexington he was not only involved in the Roots and
Shoots School Garden, but also served as president and member of the Board of
Trustees for the Yellow Brick Road Early Learning Center from 1998-2003.
Also, he was Senior Warden and Vestry member of the Robert E. Lee Memorial
Episcopal Church. The Browns could always be counted on to befriend new
cadets at the Virginia Military Institute and Brown was well known on the
Washington and Lee University campus as he audited history classes every
semester.

Brown is survived by his wife, Molly Jones Brown; his brother, Van R. Brown;
four daughters, Julia Fiorino, Anne Pundyk, Mary Brown Brantner and Jeanne
Dexter; and four grandchildren.

Friends may call from 4 to 6 p.m. today at the Harrison Funeral Home,
Lexington, Va.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to The Roots and
Shoots Intergenerational School Garden, Waddell Elementary School, 306
Overhill Drive, Lexington, Va. 24450, or Yellow Brick Road Early Learning
Center, 123 W. Washington St., Lexington, Va. 24450.
_______________________________________

I will always treasure the special moments over the years when I
had the pleasure of being in Dirck's company at various adoption
conferences...he WILL be missed.

pb...

http://bastards.org/bb/7.UAA.html

Thanks for posting pb Kathy J
Subject: Truly a HUGE loss to the adoption communityFrom: pb... woodlark-99@newsguy.comDate: 1/15/2004
A memorial service for Dirck W. Brown will be held at 2 p.m. Friday at theRobert E. Lee Memorial Episcopal Church. [that was Jan. 2, 2004]

And here's another one. This is just so cool!


The Baltimore Sun

November 3, 2003 Monday FINAL Edition

SECTION: TELEGRAPH, Pg. 1A

LENGTH: 1732 words

HEADLINE: A duel for a daughter agonizes two families;
Ordeal: A young child is torn in a bitter legal tug of war between her
Marshallese birth mother and new parents in Florida.;
THE BABY BROKERS

BYLINE: Walter F. Roche Jr.

SOURCE: SUN STAFF

DATELINE: SARASOTA, FLA.

BODY:

SARASOTA, Fla. - For two families in Florida, the pain of an
adoption gone wrong is plainly visible on their faces.

Carmen and Darlene Scoma talk sadly about the child from the
Marshall Islands they thought they had legally claimed in Hawaii in
1997. For 4 1/2 years, Atina Erakdrik had been their daughter, until
they lost her early last year after a bitter court battle.

"She's our daughter. She will always be our daughter," says Darlene
Scoma, her voice quavering.

In Fruitland Park, 130 miles north, Atina's birth mother, Molly
Juna, 31, who traveled more than 7,000 miles to reclaim her child,
talks about the pain she endured during the protracted court fight.

"Very trying, very distressing," she says.

Courts in the United States and the Marshall Islands have denounced
the child's "black market adoption," concluding that Juna had never
properly consented to giving up her daughter. Atina was treated, said
one judge, "as if she were some form of contraband."

"Spiriting a baby out of its home country, transferring possession
of the baby to the prospective adoptive parents in Hawaii and the
unauthorized transportation of the baby to Florida without bothering
with a proper guardianship or even an enforceable power of attorney
deserves the ugly name black market," wrote Judge H. Dee Johnson Jr.
of the Marshall Islands High Court.

Atina's case is but one example of what can happen in the commerce
in children from the poverty-ravaged Marshall Islands, where the
number of youngsters adopted as a percentage of the population has
become by far the highest in the world, even as the price for each
child has soared to the current going rate of $25,000.

In another case, a young mother said she was coerced into taking
her
7-year-old daughter to Utah to be adopted.

And in another, the adoptive father of two pre-teen girls was
charged with molesting them in South Carolina.

Assessing blame

Now 7, the shy but playful Atina sits on a bench on a warm
late-summer afternoon, waiting for a turn on the backyard swing that
hangs from a huge, moss-draped oak that seems to defy gravity.

When her turn comes, Atina changes her mind. Instead, she plays
with a toy camera, giggling as she mimics the photographer taking
pictures of her.

She and her mother live with Kathryn Staton-Smith, a nurse who has
adopted several children from the Marshall Islands and opened her
doors to Juna, assisting in her quest to reunite her family.

Though Juna and the Scomas say they are barred by confidentiality
orders from discussing details of the adoption case, some facts are
evident.

The emotional scars preclude reconciliation. Those scars are
unlikely to heal soon.

But while they disagree over much, both families point to the
people who arranged the adoption as the ones to blame for the trauma
they have suffered.

The Scomas have been absolved by the courts. They sued Hearts &
Homes for Children, the now-defunct adoption agency to which they paid
$17,000, and its executive director, Beverly McGurk, in Sarasota
Circuit Court last year, alleging fraud and seeking restitution. The
state of Florida, which licensed the agency, is named as a
co-defendant.

Attorneys for Hearts & Homes have denied any wrongdoing on the part
of their client, but a circuit court judge entered a default judgment
against the agency Oct. 7, concluding that it was "involved in an
illegal operation in the Marshall Islands." The agency is appealing
the judge's ruling.

McGurk cannot be found, and lawyers for the Scomas have not been
able to serve her with a copy of the lawsuit. Her last known address
is in Costa Rica.

Hearts & Homes

The story of Atina's journey to the United States began in 1997,
when the Scomas began to look into adoption, first by contacting local
agencies such as Catholic Charities and by searching the Internet.

"We did a lot of research," says Carmen Scoma, who works in the
health-care industry.

Eventually, they turned to Hearts & Homes, a local agency. With
McGurk in the Marshall Islands at the time, Darlene Scoma met with a
board member who described the widespread poverty, malnutrition and
high child mortality rate in the Western Pacific islands.

"We really didn't know anything about it," she says.

The Scomas, both 42, were told that adopting a Marshallese child is
less complicated than other foreign adoptions because islanders can
travel freely to the United States.

The Scomas did more research, including a check with the Better
Business Bureau, then met with McGurk in June when they signed a
preliminary application. A month later they filled out a final
application.

"We felt comfortable," says Carmen Scoma, adding that they had
spoken with McGurk and organization board members. "We decided to go
ahead."

Several months later the Scomas were told it was time to fly to
Honolulu, where they would meet the birth mother and the child
selected for them, a 16-month-old girl.

The Scomas and several other adoptive families, along with the
birth mothers and children being placed for adoption, were put up at a
Waikiki hotel in late 1997. The Scomas stayed for a week, meeting four
times with Molly Juna and Atina.

While in Hawaii, they met Joanne Pedro, a woman from Ebeye, one of
the Marshall Islands, who had arranged for Juna to give up her child.
Pedro, the Scomas said, acted as translator because Juna did not speak
English.

There was no hint that anything was amiss, the Scomas say, and they
returned with Atina to Florida. They say they did not immediately file
for adoption because they were relying on Hearts & Homes to advise
them how to proceed.

On March 13, 1998, they received a letter from Juna. They decline
to discuss the contents because it became part of the sealed adoption
case, but the letter clearly changed everything.

From then on, the Scomas say, every ring of the phone, every mail
delivery brought more apprehension.

Shortly after, they filed formal papers in Florida to adopt Atina,
triggering the court battle that finally ended on Jan. 5, 2002, when
the child was turned over to Juna.

Juna's side of the story is spelled out in court rulings in the
Marshall Islands and Florida.

The strongest criticism was leveled at McGurk, who has disappeared.

Judge Vincent T. Hall Jr. of Sarasota Circuit Court wrote in a
decision dated Dec. 13, 2001, that "unbeknownst" to the Scomas, "the
adoption agency with which they were dealing was involved in an
illegal operation in the Marshall Islands procuring black market
babies for adoption in Florida."

Knowing consent

Documents filed in the Florida adoption petition indicated that
Juna had given knowing consent. The judge found those documents and
their verification questionable.

"The court finds that because of the cultural differences between
an American adoption and a Marshallese adoption, the natural mother
did not understand that the document she signed forever gave up her
rights to the child. Even if there were a proper translation of the
document from English to Marshallese, it is doubtful that she
understood the consent and its terms," Hall wrote in the four-page
ruling.

Interviewed on Ebeye recently, Billy Sampson, then clerk of courts
on the island, said Joanne Pedro sought to make it appear that he had
witnessed Juna signing Atina's adoption papers.

Sampson said he witnessed Pedro's signature when she came into his
courthouse in 1997 but never saw Juna sign.

"It was very tricky," said Sampson, now a judge on the island.

In an interview in August, Pedro insisted that the Scoma adoption
was perfectly legal and that Juna not only understood the adoption
process but gave full consent.

"She signed willingly. We didn't force her," said Pedro, standing
outside her one-room house on Ebeye.

Pedro, who declined to say exactly how much she was paid to find
children for adoption, said she is taking a break from the business.

Asked if her fee was "a few hundred dollars," she said yes.

"I know how mothers feel about giving up their babies, but they
don't have any choice. They go hungry. I myself have had hard times.
I'm looking for a job," Pedro said.

"Maybe that's why they said that I sold babies. So I tell them,
'Come and see my house.' If I was selling babies, I'd have a rich
house."

Johnson, who has left the bench to practice law in Majuro, called
Atina's case a "classic example" of why the adoption of Marshallese
children must be handled in island courts.

"We understand the customs. You have to talk to them (birth
parents) and make sure they all understand exactly what is going on,"
Johnson says. "A very high percentage of the birth mothers
misunderstand."

Both judges concluded that Juna did not give knowing consent to a
permanent adoption as required under the laws of Florida and the
Marshall Islands.

Johnson said the transaction violated criminal laws in the Marshall
Islands and "in all probability" broke U.S. immigration laws.

"The risks to which this child was exposed by this mode of custody
change are huge and are well-known to competent professionals who work
in the commendable field of adoption and child welfare," the judge
wrote. "It is quite clear that there was no such competent
professional involved in this matter."

The Scomas are pursuing their lawsuit, but their lives are hardly
back to normal.

"It is obviously catastrophic," says Carmen Scoma, adding that they
had "unconditional love" for the child they lost. "It's been very,
very difficult."

"We're living day to day," says Darlene Scoma.

They recently boxed up the things in Atina's room, but her bike
still sits on the porch.

"We don't know what to do," Darlene Scoma says.

To others considering an adoption, especially from the Marshall
Islands, the Scomas offer a warning.

"Adoption is a wonderful thing," says Darlene Scoma, "but you have
to be very careful."

"There are supposed to be safeguards along the way," her husband
says. "The state is supposed to oversee these agencies, but they still
haven't pursued any action. The safety nets failed miserably."

Staton-Smith says Atina has adapted well since returning to her
mother, that she's doing fine in school and is now in second grade.
But there are still wounds to heal, and some topics are best avoided.

In her Fruitland home, Atina stands at the window, smiling
playfully. And then she turns, tears streaming down her face.

Top: Thanks Patty - he sounds like a VERY decent skin - and that's a big
compliment!

Helen

"pb..." <woodlark-99@newsguy.com> wrote in message
news:o6nc005levplqerdfcrfph5u6ap9tdm429@4ax.com... http://www.newarkadvocate.com/news/stories/20040101/obituaries/146936.html Dirck W. Brown June 14, 1928-Dec. 30, 2003 A memorial service for Dirck W. Brown will be held at 2 p.m. Friday at the Robert E. Lee Memorial Episcopal Church. [that was Jan. 2, 2004] Brown, a lifelong champion for the better of education, community and
family, died Dec. 30, 2003, of heart failure in Lexington, Va. He was 75 years
old. Brown moved to Lexington in 1992 and became an active and immediate contributor to the community as he and his wife, Molly, co-founded the
Roots and Shoots Intergenerational School Garden program at Waddell Elementary School. There is not a Waddell student graduate in the past 10 years who hasn't spent time either in the classroom or garden with the Browns. The garden has been nationally recognized as a model educational program, and
the Browns have documented and distributed the curriculum to other schools
across the country. Born in Kansas City, June 14, 1928, Brown's parents were Dr. Kenneth I.
Brown and Muriel Handy Brown. He was raised in Hiram and Granville. In 1950, he graduated from Denison University and entered the U.S. Army Signal Corps, where he was a Second Lieutenant. He was stationed in Japan where he
trained troops during the Korean War. After he was discharged in 1953, Brown earned a doctorate in education
from Columbia University Teachers College and went on to become Dean of Men at
the University of Iowa and Dean of Students at the University of Denver. From 1965 to 1978, Brown worked for the National Educational Association (Washington, D.C. and Palo Alto, Calif.) to encourage college students to enter teaching professions. Throughout these years, Brown became involved in the issues surrounding adoption, its life long impact, and the struggle to open birth records to adoptees. These issues were near to his heart because of his own
experiences as an adoptee searching for his birth parents. In 1978, he resigned from
the NEA and returned to graduate school to earn a license in Marriage and
Family Therapy and founded the Post Adoption Center for Education and Research (PACER) in Palo Alto, Calif. PACEr, which began in the Browns' living room to provide support to
adoptees, adoptive parents and birth parents, quickly became the hub of adoption research and counseling through Northern California, and led to the
creation of the national American Adoption Congress, a national organization that fought for adoptee's rights. From 1987-1992, the Browns lived in Orient, N.Y., where he was associated with the Bridgehampton Counseling Center. In 1988, Brown co-authored "Clinical Practices in Adoption," a book that grew out of the work he
began in PACER. After Brown moved to Lexington he was not only involved in the Roots and Shoots School Garden, but also served as president and member of the Board
of Trustees for the Yellow Brick Road Early Learning Center from 1998-2003. Also, he was Senior Warden and Vestry member of the Robert E. Lee Memorial Episcopal Church. The Browns could always be counted on to befriend new cadets at the Virginia Military Institute and Brown was well known on the Washington and Lee University campus as he audited history classes every semester. Brown is survived by his wife, Molly Jones Brown; his brother, Van R.
Brown; four daughters, Julia Fiorino, Anne Pundyk, Mary Brown Brantner and Jeanne Dexter; and four grandchildren. Friends may call from 4 to 6 p.m. today at the Harrison Funeral Home, Lexington, Va. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to The Roots and Shoots Intergenerational School Garden, Waddell Elementary School, 306 Overhill Drive, Lexington, Va. 24450, or Yellow Brick Road Early Learning Center, 123 W. Washington St., Lexington, Va. 24450. _______________________________________ I will always treasure the special moments over the years when I had the pleasure of being in Dirck's company at various adoption conferences...he WILL be missed. pb... http://bastards.org/bb/7.UAA.html

Thanks for this, I thought I'd seen something on alt.adoption from PACER about
Dirck's passing, but it was on some other list. PACER's still going strong,
relatively speaking, and still stands for openness and truth in adoption, so
Dirck Brown's legacy continues.

Ron

"pb..." wrote:
http://www.newarkadvocate.com/news/stories/20040101/obituaries/146936.html Dirck W. Brown June 14, 1928-Dec. 30, 2003 A memorial service for Dirck W. Brown will be held at 2 p.m. Friday at the Robert E. Lee Memorial Episcopal Church. [that was Jan. 2, 2004] Brown, a lifelong champion for the better of education, community and family, died Dec. 30, 2003, of heart failure in Lexington, Va. He was 75 years old. Brown moved to Lexington in 1992 and became an active and immediate contributor to the community as he and his wife, Molly, co-founded the Roots and Shoots Intergenerational School Garden program at Waddell Elementary School. There is not a Waddell student graduate in the past 10 years who hasn't spent time either in the classroom or garden with the Browns. The garden has been nationally recognized as a model educational program, and the Browns have documented and distributed the curriculum to other schools across the country. Born in Kansas City, June 14, 1928, Brown's parents were Dr. Kenneth I. Brown and Muriel Handy Brown. He was raised in Hiram and Granville. In 1950, he graduated from Denison University and entered the U.S. Army Signal Corps, where he was a Second Lieutenant. He was stationed in Japan where he trained troops during the Korean War. After he was discharged in 1953, Brown earned a doctorate in education from Columbia University Teachers College and went on to become Dean of Men at the University of Iowa and Dean of Students at the University of Denver. From 1965 to 1978, Brown worked for the National Educational Association (Washington, D.C. and Palo Alto, Calif.) to encourage college students to enter teaching professions. Throughout these years, Brown became involved in the issues surrounding adoption, its life long impact, and the struggle to open birth records to adoptees. These issues were near to his heart because of his own experiences as an adoptee searching for his birth parents. In 1978, he resigned from the NEA and returned to graduate school to earn a license in Marriage and Family Therapy and founded the Post Adoption Center for Education and Research (PACER) in Palo Alto, Calif. PACEr, which began in the Browns' living room to provide support to adoptees, adoptive parents and birth parents, quickly became the hub of adoption research and counseling through Northern California, and led to the creation of the national American Adoption Congress, a national organization that fought for adoptee's rights. From 1987-1992, the Browns lived in Orient, N.Y., where he was associated with the Bridgehampton Counseling Center. In 1988, Brown co-authored "Clinical Practices in Adoption," a book that grew out of the work he began in PACER. After Brown moved to Lexington he was not only involved in the Roots and Shoots School Garden, but also served as president and member of the Board of Trustees for the Yellow Brick Road Early Learning Center from 1998-2003. Also, he was Senior Warden and Vestry member of the Robert E. Lee Memorial Episcopal Church. The Browns could always be counted on to befriend new cadets at the Virginia Military Institute and Brown was well known on the Washington and Lee University campus as he audited history classes every semester. Brown is survived by his wife, Molly Jones Brown; his brother, Van R. Brown; four daughters, Julia Fiorino, Anne Pundyk, Mary Brown Brantner and Jeanne Dexter; and four grandchildren. Friends may call from 4 to 6 p.m. today at the Harrison Funeral Home, Lexington, Va. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to The Roots and Shoots Intergenerational School Garden, Waddell Elementary School, 306 Overhill Drive, Lexington, Va. 24450, or Yellow Brick Road Early Learning Center, 123 W. Washington St., Lexington, Va. 24450. _______________________________________ I will always treasure the special moments over the years when I had the pleasure of being in Dirck's company at various adoption conferences...he WILL be missed. pb... http://bastards.org/bb/7.UAA.html

mhjtw@hotmail.com (Melinda Walmsley) wrote in message news:<eb5515c9.0401150933.34f5e7b1@posting.google.com>... I am on top of the world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just found a connection between the lawyer who kidnapped my granddaughter and the Marshall Island kidnappings. Adoption Choices, which does business in Oklahoma, Colorado and Hawaii; Southern Adoptions of Philadelphia, Miss.; and adoption lawyer Linda Lach of Hawaii are at the forefront of a thriving and lucrative industry that has sprung up to profit from this burgeoning commerce in which each infant placed can bring $25,000.

I presume you mean Linda Lach? So she doesn't operate only in Hawaii?

Rupa