George R. Brown graduated from CSM in 1922 with an Engineer of Mines degree. He was awarded a Distinguished Achievement Medal in 1949 and an Honorary Doctor of Engineering in 1962. Dr. Brown and his brother, Herman, developed Brown & Root Inc. from a small road-building company into one of the world's largest construction conglomerates.

As a young man, Brown believed he would never make much money as an engineer. "What was important was the romance of engineering. Engineers were men who went to far places... as far away as China," he once said. It was the idea of "romance" which led Brown to study mining engineering at Colorado School of Mines, and then to pursue this romance into an extraordinary career of finding innovative solutions to complex engineering challenges. After graduation, Brown worked as a geologist shortly but was persuaded by his brother, Herman, to join him as a road contractor. This proved to be a profitable decision since dirt roads were giving way to paved roads needed for automobiles.

George R. Brown once said that imagination and the willingness to take risks were the keys to success. It must have been this daring spirit that helped enable Brown to accomplish so much. He was a philanthropist, a civic leader, a patron of the arts and humanities, but most of all a visionary builder whose imagination and sense of adventure expanded the boundaries of engineering.

As executive vice president of Brown & Root, he mapped the future of the company. The company won the Marshall Ford Dam contract, one of the largest construction projects during the Depression. The company had never built a dam before, and this one required 2 million tons of concrete. "We had imagination and were willing to gamble," Brown once said.

The biggest test came during World War II when the Brown brothers accepted a contract to build a shipyard and its ships, which nobody in the company had done before. "Timid money has created very little in our economic history," Brown once said. "You name it, we'll build it." By 1945, the company had delivered the Navy 359 destroyer escorts and landing craft.

After the war, the company built highway bridges, offshore drilling and production platforms, and military bases around the world. The Browns revolutionized pipeline transportation of oil and natural gas nationwide. In the 1960s President Lyndon Johnson to the Committee to Study Expanding Trade with Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union appointed him. The Browns also helped bring NASA’s Manned Spacecraft Center to Houston.

During the 1970's, George Brown focused on philanthropy and was a patron of the arts and humanities. Through the Brown Foundation, major commitments were made to Houston's Museum of Fine Arts, Rice University and Southwestern University. In 1977, six national engineering societies joined to give Brown the John Fritz Medal, the professions highest honor for scientific and industrial achievement -- an honor given in the past to Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison and Herbert Hoover.

As a tribute to George Brown, his own class, The Class of 1922, in 1974 established the George R. Brown Medal, which is awarded occasionally to a person who has rendered distinguished service in or to the field of engineering education. George Brown was Brown Foundation’s president when it made its largest gift at that time, $4.4 million, to help construct George R. Brown Hall on the CSM campus.

Brown continued to have a strong relationship with the institution and with several CSM presidents through the years. Colorado School of Mines with a Distinguished Achievement Medal in 1949 and an Honorary Doctor of Engineering Degree recognized Brown for his contributions in 1962. Through George R. Brown Hall and the newly established George R. Brown Distinguished Chair in Engineering, his name will always be prominently recognized by Colorado School of Mines.

Brown Hall was completed in 1980 and dedicated to honor George R. Brown '22 in April 1981. The building was built and equipped with $5.5 million of private donations. The Brown Foundation, headed by George Brown, contributed the bulk of the monies for construction. Other contributing companies are Amax, Inc., Burlington Northern, Exxon Corporation, Getty Oil Company, Ingersoll-Rand, Kennecot/SOHIO, Newmont Gold, and Westinghouse.

The Brown Foundation, Inc. was founded in 1951 by Herman and Margarett Root Brown and George R. and Alice Pratt Brown to distribute funds for public charitable purposes, primarily for the support, encouragement and assistance of education and the arts. The projects selected for funding are those that have the potential for long-lasting impact in the community. The Foundation's current emphasis is in the field of public education at the primary and secondary levels.

Colorado School of Mines' endowment grew from $82.4 million in 1998 to $127 million in 2000. Even before the big jump, Mines ranked 16th among the nation's public universities in endowment per student--$29,202.

"The wealth that has been generated in this economy is definitely a plus," said Peter Han, vice president for development at School of Mines.


*Sources: 7he Houston Post, Sunday, Jan. 23, 1983, "Engineer, philanthropist Brown dies," and Texas Eastern Corp. 1982 Annual Report, and Funds Magazine.