Faye Crescibene-Brown

July 14, 1934 - February 4, 2024

Faye Crescibene-Brown, a beloved mother and grandmother who worked her way through the ranks from a minimum-wage operator to a process engineer at a Silicon Valley electronics firm, passed away February 4, 2024, in Temecula (Riverside County) at 89. She suffered from dementia for several years and more recently from breast cancer. Mrs. Crescibene-Brown was born Faye Erma Jordan on July 14, 1934, to Martha Irene Farnsworth and Arthur Wilson Jordan in Brighton, N.Y., a suburb of Rochester. She spent much of her teenage years living on a farm in Phelps, N.Y., with her aunt and uncle, Julia and Jacob Pollot, and her four cousins. She often described this time as among the most enjoyable of her life.

She graduated from Phelps Central School in 1952 and took a job with Jackson & Perkins, a rose grower in Newark, N.Y., then considered the Rose Capital of America. In 1955, she married Henry R. Crescibene of Newark. They came to California for their honeymoon, never returning to live in New York.

They eventually settled in Fremont, where they raised their two sons, Christopher Carl and Michael Arthur. Henry worked at Veterans Administration hospitals in Menlo Park and Palo Alto, where he was a truck driver, warehouseman and, eventually, electrician. Money became tight, so Faye took a job with Siliconix Inc., in Santa Clara. She started at the lowest rung at the electronics company, but soon became an assistant supervisor, then supervisor and eventually, process engineer. She had only a high school education, but the colleagues she worked with had doctorates. Henry died in 1986, and Faye married Charles A. Brown Jr. in October 1989. Faye retired from Siliconix in 1998 after 32 years with the company. She and Charles moved to Valley Springs (Calaveras County) so she could spend her retirement in “the country” like she did as a teenager. She spent much of this time researching her family’s genealogy, tracing one branch all the way back to the Mayflower.

After Charles died in 2014, Faye moved to Petaluma to be near her son, Chris and his family. They enjoyed many weekly lunches, exploring many restaurants in Petaluma, though Mary’s Pizza Shack was a favorite.

In 2021, she moved to a retirement home in Temecula near her other son, Mike.

Mrs. Crescibene-Brown leaves her sons, Christopher of Novato and Michael of Menifee (Riverside County); a stepdaughter, Leah Quist of Anaheim; daughtersin-law, Cynthia Goldman of Novato and Michele Crescibene of Menifee; and grandchildren, Sophia Crescibene of San Francisco, Annabel Crescibene of Novato, Ashley Oliver of San Jose and Austin Churchill of Menifee.

In lieu of flowers, the family prefers donations to the Alzheimer’s Association.