David S. Brown papers

David Springer Brown (1915-96) was a Professor Emeritus of Management in the School of Government and business administration at The George Washington University, where he was a faculty member and program director for 31 years. Dr. Brown was among those principally responsible for the creation of the Department of Public Administration at the university, functioning as coordinator, director, and chair. This included creating a masters degree program in association management, the first such in the country.

Dr. Brown was born in Maine in 1915, and earned his A.B. from the University of Maine and Ph.D. from Syracuse University. He served as a bomber pilot for the U.S. Navy in World War II, and saved his own life by jumping from a burning plane at 500 feet. His passion for flying continued throughout his life; he piloted 15 or 20 different kinds of aircraft. Prior to his coming to The George Washington University, Professor Brown served several private companies and also four federal agencies including the Department of Agriculture, the Civil Aeronautics Administration, the Air Coordinating Committee, and the Marshall Plan. In 1953, As executive secretary of the Mutual Secretary Program's Public Advisory Board, he helped inaugurate and undertake the first presidential level study of American Trade and Tariff Policy in American history.

He joined the faculty of GW in 1954 and specialized in the management of large organizations and bureaucracy. He was the author of several books, including Management Concepts and Practices, Management's Hidden Enemy - and What Can Be Done About It, Managing the Large Organization, and Federal Contributions to Management. In addition, he wrote several monographs and over 200 professional articles and book reviews. While at GW, he directed a number of programs. These included a senior executive program for the Veterans Administration, the Air Force Advanced Management Program, and a master's degree program in the management of national resources at the Industrial College of the Armed forces.

Dr. Brown appeared professionally as a speaker or trainer in a majority of the states and in several foreign countries. In 1958, he was Visiting American Professor at Chesters, a management training center in Glasgow, Scotland. He lectured for the U.S. Information Agency in Europe and Africa, directed many management training programs for both public and private sectors, and served as a management consultant. For several years he was President and later Chairman of the Board of Leadership Resources, Inc., a management training company.

Dr. Brown retired from GW in 1986, and died March 11, 1996.

An oral history done with Dr. Brown in 1989 can be found in MS0371, the Oral History Collection. The History Museum in Gelman Library was renamed the David S. Brown Memorabilia Room in November 2003 following a donation to the Library by his widow, Anne Elizon Brown. The collection was donated to the University Archives in three accessions by David S. Brown and Anne Elizon Brown in 1986, 1994, and 1997.

N.B. This history note was written in 2005