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BRIAN MORGAN SHERROD, SR.

Vilonia, Arkansas

“He who feeds a hungry animal feeds his own soul" - Charles Chaplin

Every email, letter, every written word that he put on paper ended with that phrase, words that Brian Morgan Sherrod of Vilonia (brother of Clay Sherrod of Petit Jean Mountain) lived by and instilled into others as to the importance of appreciating all life over and above our own.



And there is no doubt that Brian’s soul was entirely satiated from the love he gave to all creatures on Tuesday, May 5 when he passed - the result of complication from a very severe head injury he suffered in January - from this world he had made so rich for others with whom he shared.

Brian leaves behind his wife of 27 years Tamie of Vilonia, Arkansas, son Brian, Jr., and daughters Amanda Howard, Nina Sherrod and Brittany Moody; he was preceded in death by his son Cory Johnson and sister Sylvia Inmon. He is survived by his brother, P. Clay Sherrod and their mother Betty Jo Sherrod.

Brian worked alongside his brother and others all his adult life in the pursuit of astronomical excellence and he was solely responsible for converting over all Arkansas Sky Observatories to the "new age" of the computer controlled robotic telescope and observatory operations in 1999.  He established the very first ASO website in 2001 and maintained it until retiring about a decade later.

To say that Brian Sherrod had an amazing mind is an understatement as all who knew him quickly realized; at age 14, long before home computers, he dismantled one of the first programmable Texas Instruments pocket calculators, reprogrammed it, and used the electronics to construct a fully functional programmable machine that served as Arkansas’ first astronomical computer. He was a master film photographer, published and known the world over for his remarkable prints that stimulated the senses; an avid Ham Radio operator and organizer for hams across the United States, Brian learned to completely design and build both old and new equipment; his hobby of love was restoring vintage radios for which he not only got them working again like new, but could actually cut open the antique glass tubes and rebuild them entirely so that they could function.

His diverse interests through life afforded him the opportunity to drive one of the largest earth-moving vehicles ever made while working at Big Rock quarries at a very young age, serve as “DJ Brian” in Little Rock nightclubs for over a decade of nighttime excitement, and ultimately develop the essential computer programming for Arkansas state, county and municipal governmental operations at every level, these still in use and maintained by Tamie today.

Brian loved Petit Jean Mountain and spent countless hours on the plateau searching, discovering, photographing and relating to nature from age three until shortly before his untimely death.
He helped establish the Arkansas Sky Observatories’ network of four observatories across Arkansas and had earned a Harvard Minor Planet Center designation – H44 – for his large observatory on Cascade Mountain in Faulkner County.

But Brian Morgan Sherrod was best known for his heart, both for his fellow human and for his best friends – the canines of the world. He never met a dog that he did not love. His compassion for his fellow man and for those furry friends of man surely provided one of the richest souls to ever depart this Earth.

May, 2020 by P. Clay Sherrod
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