Frank Brown

1935 - 2025

Frank Brown

May 1, 1935 - March 12, 2025

Chapel Hill, North Carolina - Dr. Frank Brown, the first black full professor and dean of the School of Education, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has passed away at the age of 89.

Dr. Frank Brown, Ph.D., was the Cary C. Boshamer Distinguished Professor of Education Leadership and Dean Emeritus, School of Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel, UNC, making history becoming the first black dean of a doctoral-granting professional at UNC. Dr. Brown was a visionary writer and researcher on legal and racial issues in education and authored more than 300 publications.

A native of Alabama, Dr. Brown did his undergraduate work at Alabama State University where he was All-American in football. He received his master's degree in chemistry at Oregon State University, his doctoral degree in policy planning and administration from the University of California at Berkeley, and a Fellow at Harvard University's Institute for Educational Management.

Dr. Brown was a trailblazer in leadership, serving on the UNC Committee that was instrumental in obtaining a grant to establish the University's first black cultural center, to assisting his fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity with the planning that brought about the memorial of Martin Luthur King Jr., the first African American honored with a memorial near the National Mall in Washington D.C., and only the fourth non-president.

Dr. Brown was admitted to Medical School, but liked teaching, finding that teachers can make a difference. He taught physics and chemistry in California where he met his wife, Joan Drake Brown, a fellow teacher, and then moved to New York after receiving his doctorate.

Dr. Brown held several academic and administrative positions, including lecturer in education and acting director of mathematics and science education at the University of California at Berkeley; associate director, New York State Commission on the Quality, Cost and Financing of Elementary and Secondary Education; assistant professor and director of University's Urban Institute and Assistant Professor of Social Foundations at City College of New York; professor of educational administration and Ph.D. program in policy studies at the Cora P. Maloney College, State University of New York at Buffalo; visiting scholar, Graduate School of Education, University of California at Berkely; and Administrative Law Judge who heard education law cases.

Dr. Brown was the first black vice president of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), and was keynote speaker at the World Conference on Rights to Education and Rights in Education in Amsterdam, the Netherlands to discuss Privatization of Education and Education in America, and the Oxford Round Table in Oxford England, which brought together scholars from around the world to discuss the Intersection of School Desegregation and Globalization in America.

Dr. Brown was an army veteran, a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity (Boulé), and White Rock Baptist Church where he had served on the Trustee Board. He loved to read books on education, science, and history, listen to jazz, discuss daily events with his family and friends, and ponder scientific possibilities with his daughter, asking "if we could somehow harness a bolt of lightning, it might provide enough energy to light the world".

Dr. Brown was the eldest of six siblings and was the son of the late Tom Brown and Ora Lomax Brown who always believed in the importance of education. He is survived by his wife of 62 years, Joan Drake Brown; his two children, Frank Garland Brown and Monica Joan Brown; one granddaughter; and a sister.