Legacy on the line

By Marvin Pave

HOPKINTON - George V. Brown was greeted by royalty and presidents.

He wore floppy hats and had a booming bass voice, lived his entire life at Maplewood Farm on Hayden Rowe Street, and as athletic director of the Boston Athletic Association started a family tradition at the 1905 Boston Marathon.

On that spring day in Ashland, Brown fired the starter's pistol and sent the runners on their way to Boston. He performed the same duty every year until his death at age 57. The mantle then passed to Brown's four sons, who continued the family's annual rite of spring; it currently rests with his grandson, Walter F. Brown. The Plainfield, Vt., resident wears his grandfather's 1937 starter's ribbon for the occasion.

Now, though, George V. Brown is again standing proudly, a fedora on his head and a pistol in hand.

Thanks to the efforts of the Hopkinton Athletic Association and the Brown family, a life-size bronze statue of the patriarch was unveiled on Sunday during the MetroWest Symphony Orchestra's Marathon Week kickoff concert at Hopkinton Middle School. The statue, sculpted by town resident Michael Alfano, is on display at Hopkinton Common.