Col. Walter James Brown Obits

London Free Press (London, Ontario, Canada)
Monday, July 20, 1959
Page: 05
Date of Event: Saturdy, July 18, 1959

Helped Guide University
Col. Walter J. Brown Passes
    Col. Walter James Brown, who retired in 1946 as bursar and executive secretary of the University of Western Ontario, died Saturday night at his home, 1006 Wellington St..
    Born in Aylmer, he was named executive secretary of the university in 1920, becoming bursar in 1937.  He also served as secretary of the board of governors.
    After joining UWO, Col. Brown organized plans for rebuilding the university in 1920 which led to the erection of the new buildings in 1922.  In 1937-38, he prepared the plans for the university endowment campaign.  He retired from the UWO post in January of 1946.

Held Many Posts     Prior to his university appointment, he was secretary of the inter-collegiate department of the YMCA in Chicago; educational director for the YMCA first in Chicago, and later in St. Louis; general secretary of the National Sanitarium Association in Toronto; and founder and principal of the Canadian Correspondent College.  For several years he was an editorial writer for the Toronto Globe and was a regular contributor to scientific, agricultural, literary and military magazines in Canada, the United States and Britain.
    He was a member of the "Committee of Fifty" which in 1898 investigated the drinking problem in the United States and Britain.  He prepared the scheme for the first travelling library system, adopted by the Ontario Legislature in 1901, and drew up for the Federal Government the Soldiers' Land Settlement Scheme of 1919.
Joined Militia in 1891     Col. Brown joined the first brigade of the Canadian Militia in 1891.  He served through four years of the First World War, and returned to become commanding officer of the Western Ontario COTC contingent.  He was elevated to the rank of colonel in 1926.
    He received his early education at the Aylmer Collegiate Institute, inter attending the Ontario Agricultural College at Guelph, the University of Toronto and the Chicago Law School.
    On his retirement from the university, Col. Brown was chairman of the London Community Planning and Development Committee.  He was also a former member of the Canadian Military Institute, a trustee of the National Council of the Citizen's Research Institute of Canada, a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Secretaries of London, Eng., and a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Canadian Society of Technical Agriculturists, the American Academy of Political Science, and a fellow and honorary corresponding secretary of the Royal Empire Society.
    For several years, he was a warden of St. Paul's Cathedral.  In 1946, he was appointed to the Canadian section of the International Committee of Sponsors formed to assist the University of Caen.
    Twice married, he is survived by his second wife, the former Janet Campbell; a daughter, Miss Margaret Brown, in Toronto, and a sister, Mrs. Cora Chase, of Grimsby.
    The body is at the George B. Logan and Sons funeral home until Tuesday, at 3 p.m., when service will be held at St. Paul's Cathedral, with the Very Rev. R. C. Brown, Dean of Huron, officiating.  Burial will be in Woodland Cemetery.

London Free Press (London, Ontario, Canada)
Monday, July 20, 1959
Page:  22

BROWN - At his residence, 1006 Wellington St., on Saturday, July 18, 1959, Col. Walter James Brown, beloved husband of Janet Campbell Brown, and dear father of Margaret Brown, of Toronto, and brother of Mrs. Oscar Chase of Grimsby, Ontario. Resting at the George E. Logan and Sons funeral chapel, 371 Dundas St., until Tuesday noon, funeral service in St. Paul's Cathedral, on Tuesday, at 3 p.m.. Interment in Woodland Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to the Milk Fund for Children through the Canadian Progress Club, of London.

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