James Earl Brown

James Earl Brown P.E. of Wynnewood, PA, died of complications from a fall on April 29, 2012. Originally from the Port Richmond section of Philadelphia, Jim was born on the day after Christmas in 1928. He was 83 years old. Jim graduated from Northeast Catholic High School in 1946 and worked at Beneficial Savings and Loan for four years before serving in the U.S. Army in the Korean War. He was stationed in Okinawa as a cryptographer and received the Occupation Medal (Japan) in 1953. After the war, he received his B.A. in Civil Engineering from Villanova University and earned a Masters Degree from Drexel University. He became a tenured member of the Civil Engineering faculty at Villanova where he taught from 1957 to 1968. He met Dorothy McKenna at Villanova, and they married in 1963. In 1968, he left Villanova to work with Dr. John Mauchly, the inventor of the first operational general purpose digital computer, ENIAC, at the University of Pennsylvania. Jim became VP of Dynatrend, a computer consulting company founded by Dr. Mauchly. Computers and the application of computer programs became the central focus of Jim's life's work. Following the death of John Mauchly, Jim went to work with the Department of the Navy, Northern Division of NAVFAC, where he designed a general purpose document for computerized control systems together with a book of standard analog and binary devices. This control system design has been implemented in 35 facilities across the Northeast. A lover of ideas and innovation, he held a number of patents and continued, even in retirement, to refine his computer programs. Jim was an active member of the Instrument Society of America and received multiple Outstanding Public Service awards from the Navy. When his wife Dorothy Brown retired as President of Rosemont College, he became an honorary member of Rosemont College in perpetuity and was named the "First Gentleman of Rosemont". Jim was a loving husband to Dorothy for 48 years and is deeply missed by his two daughters and their husbands, Maggie and Tim McCullough and Sheila and Zackary Perlick, as well as his 5 grandchildren Jimmy, Catie, Matthew, Kelly and Caroline. Services were held at Presentation B.V.M. on Thursday, May 3, 2012. In his memory, donations may be sent to Our Lady of Confidence Day School, 314 N. Easton Road, Willow Grove, PA 19090.