SHARON BROWNELL
2023 DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD RECIPIENT

We are honored to announce that Sharon Brownell is this year’s recipient of the Distinguished Service award.

Sharon grew up on Nantucket with her parents a brother and several sisters. She and her family loved spending their time in and around the water which is something that she still does and enjoys today. Her grandfather, who was a USCG lighthouse keeper at many places along the eastern seaboard would build little 2 or 3-hole golf courses for his kids and others to play on and enjoy. 

Sharon married young, started a family and moved to Cape Cod where she worked for a publishing company that published books for people with visual impairment. The company closed in 1979, during the recession and she had to look for another job.

She was out of work for about a year and a half when Dick Haskell, Executive Director at the time from the Massachusetts Golf Association (MGA), now Mass Golf, located at the Leo J Martin Golf Course advertised a secretarial position. This was the job that started her career path in golf. Along with her responsibilities for The MGA, Sharon also started working with Janice Vance who ran the WGAM (Women’s Golf Association of Massachusetts). The MGA grew as an organization and soon they realized that they were going to have to move because the space they were occupying at Leo J Martin Golf Course wasn’t sufficient. The MGA moved to an office building in Needham and that is where she was approached about assisting GCSANE in some accounting and other office duties by several of our former board of directors.

Sharon accepted and started in 1999, assisting the board in the day to day operations of the association. This was the start of the Executive Director’s position that we know today. The technology of today was in its’ infancy and as the association was growing the responsibilities of the executive secretary did as well. She asked the board for permission to buy a computer program for accounting purposes and other managerial tasks to help with the daily operations. As the technology improved, Sharon would incorporate it into the association's ability to communicate and operate. With her help the association stepped into the digital age where it has been ever since. Along with GCSANE, Sharon was involved with the Massachusetts Golf Association and the Alumni Turf Group all of whom she enjoyed working with.

Our association soon needed its own space and moved to the Golf House in Norton where it remains today. Sharon continued to work for GCSANE until 2011 when she decided to retire and enjoy life with her husband Tom. They love to travel, by sailboat preferably, they have been to virtually every island in the Bahamas and Caribbean where they winter and then come back to Mattapoisett where they reside. She mentioned that her time working for GCSANE was her favorite because of all the people she was surrounded by and worked with. Sharon had a few words of advice for all of us. She mentioned that we are all so busy but that the most important things in life are that we need to take the time to take care of ourselves, our families and our friends.

This association owes a debt of gratitude to Sharon for her never ending commitment and volunteerism in making our organization the professional association it has become.
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