WALTER HENDERSON BROWN

1923 - 2015

WALTER HENDERSON
BROWN Walter Henderson Brown of Skillman, NJ, and Vero Beach, Florida (formerly of Madison, NJ and Bay Head, NJ), passed away on Monday January 26, 2015. A celebration of his life will be held at a later date. Born on June 9, 1923, along with his twin brother Charles, in Germantown, Pennsylvania to Harold G and Martha F (Henderson) Brown, the family, along with older brother Harold (Red) G Jr, moved to Westfield, NJ. Walter attended Westfield High School, and The Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Connecticut, where he and his twin brother participated on the football and track teams. He then went to Yale University, against the family tradition of attending Princeton University (where both of his brothers and father attended). Yale/Princeton football games were made more interesting with the twin brothers playing against each other. During his Yale years, Walter served as a Lieutenant JG in the United States Naval Reserve during 1943-1946. He returned to Yale where he proudly graduated with the class of '45W. In 1950 he married the late Catherine (Bunny) Barnett, also of Westfield. Walter joined the New York Trust Company in 1947 where he spent time supervising the bank's business relationships in Europe. In 1957 he was appointed Vice President focusing on the bank's European and Latin American business. In 1959 he joined Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. in NYC to help further their banking interests abroad, became a partner in 1968, and assumed overall supervision of the bank's international banking activities in Europe, Latin America and the Mideast. In 1988 he gave up day to day responsibilities but remained a General Partner. Mr. Brown was very supportive of education, and was a Trustee at The Hotchkiss School, Vice Chairman of the Yale Alumni Board, and was Chairman of the Board of Sweet Briar College (Bunny's alma mater) from 1987- 1995. Mr. Brown has held positions as Vice Chairman of the Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce, Trustee of the American-Scandinavian Foundation, Director of Westvaco Corporation, and was a member of the Columbian American Chamber of Commerce, New York Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Bankers Association for Foreign Trade. More recently he was a Director of the Norwegian American Chamber of Commerce and the Boyce Thompson Southwestern Arboretum. He was also an honorary member of the Sweet Briar class of '49 and the Princeton class of '46. Walter is survived by his four children, Walter H. Brown, Jr, Catherine G. Erickson, Rebecca K. Holmes and Harold G. Brown; 12 grandchildren and 6 great grandchildren, as well as many nieces & nephews. Being such a strong believer in education, in lieu of flowers, please make any memorial contributions to the educational institution of your choice.