About Us
Diana Brown, Co-Founder
Diana was born in Tucson, Arizona, one of the last babies to be born at St. Mary’s Hospital. Her mother brought her home to her grandparents, Daphne Lucille and Eugene Franklin Brown. They took Diana to raise. As the family was unprepared for the arrival of a baby, Diana slept cozily in a suitcase for the first few days after her arrival at 850 West Rillito. She wonders if this is why she feels so at home when she travels.
Diana is an actor, improv artist, director, teacher, coach and mentor. Performing improv and scripted theatre have given her opportunities to travel and in so doing to meet people, all over the United States. Meeting these folks, she’s been able to hear their stories and those stories are the treasures she’s taken home with her.
Jim Skiba, Co-Founder
Read Jim’s contribution to Stories here
All of my ancestors have come to the United States from Northern and Eastern Europe from 1637 to 1875. At first most lived in New England and later moved to Kansas and Michigan. Most of my ancestors were farmers; a few were town leaders or teachers. My own Father was a General Contractor and my Mother ran the accounting side of the family business.
I was born in Northern Michigan and lived in small towns or in the woods until I was 15 years old. When I was 12 years old we started to build our house in the woods. We cleared the land and aged the wood for 4 years to make wood paneling for the inside. Meanwhile we started to build the foundation. For the first year – our family of seven lived in a small trailer – 4 boys in one bed, my sister in her bed and my parents in one bed. It was basic living. It was hard for Mom to cook outside on a fireplace when it was raining since the tarp often blew in the wind. We still ate pretty well, although I do remember one meal which consisted of two pieces of wet burned toast.
The closest neighbor was 3 miles away. We were the first to be picked up on a school bus which took us on a drive for 40 minutes. There were 80 kids of my age in the whole county at the high school. Eventually four of them went to college. I was one of them.
Largest Law Library Building in the World. Gothic-structured University of Michigan Law Library has a 50-foot cathedral ceiling, huge stained-glass windows, oak wainscoting, and cork floors. Renovation in the 90’s added more spaces for books containing for up to 475,000 volumes. The Jackier Rare Book Room alone shelves up to 25,000 volumes of old books! (Photo by Dominic Bow)
I went to small Community Colleges and then later had a miraculous entry into the University of Michigan. Once admitted for Literature & Arts, I always studied in the Law Library. I felt at home with all of the wood which reminded me of the tall hardwood trees where we built our house. However, that begins another part of a long story.
Extra details of immigration of direct ancestors:
1633 England to Massachusetts, Samuel Hall
1637 England to Maine, Roger Gard
1638 England to Massachusetts, Richard de Newton
1639 England to Connecticut, Richard Webb
1641 Sweden to Delaware, Peter Cock
1660 Ireland to Massachusetts, Walter Powers
1677 England to Pennsylvania, John Grubb
1681 Wales to Pennsylvania, Hugh Ap Griffith
1726 Ireland to Virginia, Edward Nugent
1850 Germany to Kansas, John Warning
1873 Poland to Michigan, Jacob Skiba
1875 Poland to Michigan, Piotr Misiak