United States 
W
elcome to the Brown Family Club's section on "Famous and Notable Browns" which honors Browns and their kinfolk (including descendants) who have served in the United States Congress. The most famous Browns have been in government service and many have been elected to Congress from several states.This site is sponsored by the Brown Family Association, a national, non-profit family club devoted to gathering and preserving family history of all Brown families. If you know family information on any Browns or descendants who have been elected to public office, please send us details with as much family history as you know.
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Walter Folger Brown was born 31 May 1869 in Massillon, Oh., a son of James Marshall Brown and Lavinia C. Folger. He was appointed by President Herbert Hoover to his Cabinet as Postmaster General of the United States in 1929. He served throughout Hoover's administration until 1933, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt took office. During his tenure, the commercial airline industry was expanding rapidly but the young industry needed mail contracts to survive because passenger service was still in its infancy. Walter and the Republicans favored fewer airlines. In 1930, Congress passed the McNary-Watres Act reorganized Post Office air mail contracts with the aim of winnowing out smaller carriers.
Walter convened a series of meetings for "select group of airline executives" of what later became known as "spoils conferences" to allocate major mail routes to the biggest companies. American Airlines took the southern US, Trans-Western Airlines (later TWA) was created to serve the middle part of the nation and W. E. Boeing founded United Air Lines in 1931 to serve the northern tier (he was also founder of the modern Boeing company which is now the world's largest aircraft manufacturer).
The "Air Mail Scandal" of 1930 was, in a sense, a blessing for such companies as those that were part of the vast United conglomerate. At that time, it included airlines, aircraft and engine manufacturing companies and several airports. The nation's media accused Postmaster General Brown of master-minding the "spoils conference" in May 1930, to dispense favors to his airline cronies. A scandal erupted in 1934 over how he had granted mail routes to the biggest airline companies. The new Roosevelt administration canceled all the contracts for those airlines which had benefited from those contracts under the previous Republican administration's arrangements.
Bowing to media and political pressure, President Roosevelt in 1934 ordered Postmaster General James Farley to cancel all air mail contracts - - even while Congress was still investigating media charges of collusion.
Walter died 26 Jan 1961. He was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery, Toledo, Oh.
Dr. Harold Brown was born 19 Sep 1927 in New York City. He graduated with top honors from Bronx High School in New York at the age of 15. He earned a bachelors, masters and doctorate degrees from Columbia University -- all before he reached age 21. He majored in physics and mathematics. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa fraternity. He worked at Lawrence Radiation Laboratory at Livermore, Ca. and later became director of the research site, succeeding Edward Teller, one of the inventors of the atomic bomb; Harold himself was a major contributor to the development of the bomb. Harold became director of research and engineering for the Department of Defense in 1961. President Lyndon B. Johnson nominated him to be Secretary of the Air Force in 1965 and held this post until 1969. He became President of California Institute of Technology ("Cal Tech") at Pasadena, Ca. in 1969 until Jan 1977.
Dr. Brown was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian award, on 16 Jan 1981 and the Fermi Award on 29 July 1993.
Harold married Colene McDowell; he and his wife had two daughters.
B. Mahon Brown is an attorney and was appointed United States District Attorney for Nevada, serving 1977-1981.
Eli H. Brown III became an attorney. He served as US District Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky 1938-1945.
Fred Herbert Brown served as US District Attorney for New Hampshire. Governor of New Hampshire.
George William Brown was born in Henrico County, Virginia. He studied law and became an attorney. He went to Galveston, Texas in 1842 to volunteer for an military expedition against the Mexicans who had invaded the Republic of Texas. In 1844, he was District Attorney of the Second Judicial District. He represented Colorado County at the Convention of 1845. He was appointed US District Attorney for Texas and served 1846-1848. He died of tuberculosis in 1848.
J. Henry Brown was named US District Attorney for Puerto Rico in 1915.
Aaron Switzer Brown was born 15 Apr 1913 in Pontiac, Michigan. He graduated from Princeton University in 1935. He became a foreign service officer with the US State Department. He was appointed US Ambassador to Nicaragua by President John F. Kennedy and served 1961-1967. He died in 1969.
Ben Hill Brown Jr. was born 8 Feb 1914 in Spartanburg, SC. He served in the US Army during World War II. He was appointed United States Ambassador to Liberia in 1964 by President Lyndon B. Johnson. He died in 1989.
Keith Lapham Brown was born 18 Jun 1925 in Sterling, IL. He served in the US Navy during World War II. After the war, he graduated from the University of Texas Law School in 1949. Keith was associated with the law firm of Lang, Byrd, Cross, Ladon and Oppenheimer from 1949-1955. He was a vice president for Caulkins Oil Co. 1955- 1970. He was president of Brown Investment Corp. in Denver, Co. 1970-1982. He was appointed Ambassador to Lesotho and served 1982-1983. He was appointed Ambassador to Denmark in Nov 1988. He was appointed Ambassador to Lesotho in 1982 and Ambassador to Denmark in 1989. He and his wife have three children.
Kenneth Lee Brown was born 6 Dec 1936 in Seminole, Ok . He graduated from Pamona College, Ca. in 1959, Yale University in 1960 and New York University in 1975. He served as a 2nd Lt. in the US Army Reserve 1960-1961. He entered the US State Department's Foreign Service in 1961 and began service in Algiers as consular, economic and political officer. From 1963-1965, he was research analyst in the Department and political officer in Kinshasa, the Congo 1965-1967. He was a fellow at the Center for International Studies of New York Univ. 1967-1969. Kenneth was program officer at the Dept. of State Reception Center in New York City 1969-1970. He became desk officer for Zambia and Malawi in the State Department 1970-1972. He was political officer (1972- 1975) and information officer (1975-1977) in Brussels, Belgium. He served as Deputy Director of United Nations Political Affairs (1979-1980) and then as Director of the Office of Central African Affairs.
Kenneth was appointed by the president as Ambassador to the Congo on 16 Nov 1981. He was named Ambassador to the Ivory Coast in 1989 and appointed as Ambassador to Ghana in 1992 and left that post in Jul 1995. He and his wife have two children. Their home is in California.
Kent N. Brown of Virginia was appointed Ambassador to the Republic of Georgia in Aug 1992, the first American ambassador to this former province of the Soviet Union. He served until his resignation 19 Aug 1995. Since he left this post, he has been active in groups supporting closer ties between the US and Georgia. He and his wife have two children.
Lewis Dean (Dean) Brown was born 21 Aug 1920 in New York, NY. He served in the US Army during World War II. He entered the US State Department's Foreign Service in 1946 and served until 1975. He was appointed Ambassador to Senegal in 1967. He was named Ambassador to Jordan in 1970 during the height of a crisis fomented by Palestinian Arabs, members of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO, Arafat's gang), the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and other Arab fedayeen terrorist gangs who had entered Jordan from Israel.
Richard C. Brown was born 1 Nov 1939 in Tulsa, Ok. He graduated from George Washington Univ. in 1960 and received a MS degree in 1961. He joined the Department of State's Foreign Service in 1963. He studied Vietnamese language and became a provincial officer in Vietnam for the Agency for International Development 1965-1966. He was political officer the the consulate in Barcelona, Spain 1967-1969; special assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, 1969-1972. He was political officer at the consulate in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and principal officer for the consulate in Recife, Brazil, 1974-1976. He became deputy chief of Mission at the embassy in Port Louis, Mauritius 1976-1978. He was a staff member for Latin American Affairs on the National Security Council, 1978-1981; a student at the National War College, 1981-1982. He was deputy director of Caribbean Affairs the State Dept. 1982-1983; director of the Grenada Task Force, 1983-1984; director of the Office of Caribbean Affairs 1984-1985. He was deputy chief of mission at the embassy in Montevideo, Uruguay in 1985. He served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Inter-American Affairs 1988-1990. He served as special adviser for the International Security Affairs at the Dept. of Defense in 1990. He was nominated by the president as Ambassador to Uruguay on 13 Jun 1990 and served until 1993. Richard and his wife have two children.
William Andreas Brown was born 1930 in Winchester, Ma. He has served as Ambassador to Thailand and Israel. William graduated from Harvard University with a MA and PhD and then served in the US Marine Corps. He has studied five foreign languages (including Mongolian!). William joined the State Department in 1956 and became a consular and commercial officer in Hong Kong 1957-59. He served followed this with posts in Singapore and Kuching, Sarawak (Indonesia). He then studied Russian language and was later posted Moscow as political office, 1966-68. He was political office in New Delhi, India, 1968-70 and then became Deputy Director of the Office of Asian Communist Affairs. He attended the National War College in 1972. He was detailed to the Environmental Protection Agency from 1974-1976 and in 1977 returned to Moscow until 1978. That year, he became deputy chief of mission in Taipei and later director of the American Institute there. In 1982-83, he was a visiting professor at the University of New Hampshire and then became Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. In Apr 1985, President Bush appointed him Ambassador to Thailand, a post he held until 1988. In May 1989, he was named Ambassador to Israel.
Winthrop Gilman Brown was born 12 Jul 1907 in Bar Harbor, Maine. He served as Ambassador to Laos 1960-1962 and Ambassador to Korea 1964. He began his career in Foreign Service as executive officer for the Governor Averill Harriman (New York) Mission at the US Embassy in London, England during World War II, 1941-43; he served with the US Lend-Lease Mission to India, 1943; as executive officer, Mission for Economic Affairs, US Embassy, London, 1943-45; chief, Division of Commercial Policy, US Dept. of State, Washington, 1945-48; acting director, Office of International Trade Policy, 1947-48 and director, 1948-50; director, Office of International Materials Policy, 1950-52; and deputy to minister for economic affairs, US Embassy, London, 1952-55. President John F. Kennedy appointed Winthrop as US Ambassador to Laos, 1960-62 and as US Ambassador to Korea, 1964-67. He died in 1987.
Samuel Brown was born in 1820. Family records say he was born in Barbour County, Alabama but that may be wrong. Died in 1870. Became a US Marshall.
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