Brown, James (Montgomery) 1921–2005

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born May 21, 1921, in Dallas, TX; died March 2, 2005, in Edwardsville, IL. College administrator, educator, and author. Brown is best remembered for his leading administrative role at Southern Illinois University, where he helped that institution grow into a leading national university consisting of two main campuses. Reflecting his wide range of interests, Brown earned a bachelor's in chemistry from Rice University in 1942, a master's degree in meteorology from the California Institute of Technology in 1943, and a master's and doctorate from the State University of Iowa in 1948 and 1951, respectively. He also attended that university's famous writers' workshop. His education was interrupted from 1943 to 1945, when he served in the U.S. Army Air Forces as a weather forecaster. Brown entered academia in 1950 as an English professor at what is now Montana State University at Billings. From 1954 to 1963 he was a professor of English at North Texas State University. He then spent a couple years away from the university working for General Dynamic in Fort Worth, Texas, as a human factors engineer on projects that developed aircraft such as the F-111 fighter and B-58 bomber. When he returned to the college setting in 1965, it was at the Edwardsville campus of Southern Illinois University. Brown started as a professor of English there, but added administrative work to his credits in 1966 as assistant to the vice president of academic affairs for two years. A series of important posts followed, including chancellor in 1968, chief executive officer and chief of board staff from 1970 to 1974, general secretary from 1974 to 1979, acting chancellor in 1979, 1986, and 1991 to 1992, and chancellor again from 1992 to 1995. As an administrator, Brown was credited with helping mold the loosely associated colleges of the Southern Illinois University system into two cohesive campuses: one at Edwardsville and one at Carbondale. He also helped expand research facilities and add academic programs. Although he retired from the university in 1989, spending time as an American literature teacher at Hangzhou Teachers College in China, he returned to Southern Illinois in 1992 to serve three more years as chancellor. Brown enjoyed both teaching and administrative work and was the author of several textbooks on writing, including Casebook for Technical Writers (1961) and Cases for Business Communications (1962).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 4, 2005, p. B6.

ONLINE

Southern Illinoisan Online, http://www.southernillinoisan.com/ (March 4, 2005).