Brown served in the United States Navy from 1944 to 1946 (V-12 Navy College Training Program) and again from 1950 to 1953 in the Korean War. Before entering the service, Brown had started working in the newspaper business for his father's family-owned Brown Publishing Company, from youth to 1953, and from 1957 to 2010. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Brown and his family lived in Urbana, Ohio,[2] 90 miles north of Cincinnati, where the headquarters of the publishing company was based.
Brown served as president from 1965 to 1976, and later as chairman of the board. The company had interests in a wide network of newspapers across the country but, due to the rapidly changing business as a result of technology, it ceased operations in 2010 after 90 years.[3]
Political career
Brown was first elected to the Eighty-ninth Congress, by special election, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of his father Clarence Brown in 1965, and reelected to the eight succeeding Congresses (November 2, 1965, to January 3, 1983). He was not a candidate for reelection to the Ninety-eighth Congress in 1982, as he ran for Governor of Ohio that year, losing to Richard Celeste.
Brown was married to Joyce Helen (née Eldridge) Brown, a conductor, composer and classical pianist.[4] They married on June 11, 1955 in a garden ceremony at the home of Roy Eldridge and Helen Eldridge in the town Franklin, Ohio, his wife's hometown. They had four children: Beth (c. 1957–1964);[5]Clancy, an actor, Cathy, and Roy, who followed his father into newspaper publishing and politics.
Bud Brown died in Urbana, Ohio, on January 26, 2022, at the age of 94, from complications of COVID-19.[6][7][8]