Prentiss M. Brown

Infobox Officeholder


birth_date = June 18, 1889
birth_place = St. Ignace, Michigan
death_date = December 19, 1973
death_place = St. Ignace, Michigan
party = Democratic
state = Michigan
jr/sr = United States Senator
term_start = 1936
term_end = 1943
predecessor = James J. Couzens
successor = Homer S. Ferguson
state2 = Michigan
district2 = 11th
term_start2 = 1933
term_end2 = 1936
predecessor2 = Frank P. Bohn
successor2 = John F. Luecke
spouse = Marion Walker
children = Prentiss M. Brown, Jr., Paul W. Brown, Jim Brown, four others

Prentiss Marsh Brown (June 18, 1889 - December 19, 1973) was a Democratic U.S. Representative and Senator from the state of Michigan.

Biography

Brown was born in St. Ignace, Michigan and attended the public schools there. He attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and graduated from Albion College in Albion, Michigan in 1911. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1914 and commenced practice in St. Ignace.

Brown married Marion Walker in 1916. The couple had a total of seven children.

Brown was prosecuting attorney of Mackinac County from 1914 to 1926 and the city attorney of St. Ignace from 1916 to 1928. He was an unsuccessful candidate for election in 1924 to the United States House of Representatives and in 1928 for election as justice of the Michigan Supreme Court. He was a member of the State Board of Law Examiners from 1930 to 1942.

Congress

Brown was elected as a Democrat from Michigan's 11th congressional district to the United States House of Representatives for the 73rd Congress and was reelected to the 74th Congress, serving from March 4, 1933, until his resignation, effective November 18, 1936.

He was elected as a Democrat on November 3, 1936, to the United States Senate for the term beginning January 3, 1937, but was subsequently appointed to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of James Couzens for the term ending January 3, 1937. In total, he served from November 19, 1936, to January 3, 1943.

He was chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Claims in the Seventy-seventh Congress. He was also a member of the Banking and Currency Committee, and in this capacity was instrumental in helping Franklin D. Roosevelt achieve his desired wage and farm price controls.harvnb|Time|1942] He was an unsuccessful candidate for re-election in 1942.

After Congress: family

In December 1942, Roosevelt selected Brown to take over as administrator of the Office of Price Administration, replacing Leon Henderson, whose tenure as administrator was listed as one of the major reasons for Democratic losses in the 1942 elections. In 1943 he resumed the practice of law in both Washington, D.C., and Detroit, Michigan. He also served as chairman of the Detroit Edison Company.

In 1951, Brown was named chairman of the Mackinac Bridge Authority and served until his death. Brown died in St. Ignace at the age of 84 and is interred there at Lakeside Cemetery.

Two of Brown's children were also active in Democratic party politics. Prentiss M. Brown, Jr., ran unsuccessfully for Congress several times, in 1952, 1956, 1958, and 1960,harvnb|Kestenbaum] and was the city attorney for St. Ignace for 50 years.harvnb|Paquin|2007] Paul W. Brown was a member of the Board of Regents of the University of Michigan from 1971 until 1994, and ran unsuccessfully for Lieutenant Governor in 1974.

Honors

* In 2004, Albion College renamed its Honors Institute the "Prentiss M. Brown Honors Institute" in memory of the 1911 alumni.
* Between 1976 and 2001, the stretch of I-75 between the Mackinac Bridge and Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan was known as the Prentiss M. Brown Memorial Highway.harvnb|Barnett|2004|p=177-178]
* Since 2001, the Prentiss M. Brown Memorial Highway is designated as the name of I-75 in Mackinac County on the north side of the Mackinac Bridge.
* His accomplishments are commemorated as a "Michigan Legal Milestone" erected by the State Bar of Michigan. [ [http://www.michbar.org/programs/milestones.cfm Michigan Legal Milestones.] ]

Notes

References

* "Dictionary of American Biography"
* Citation
last = Barnett
first = LeRoy
year = 2004
title = A Drive Down Memory Lane: The Named State and Federal Highways of Michigan
publisher = Wayne State University
url = http://books.google.com/books?id=HhG46TGapxoC
oclc = 57425393
isbn = 1886167249
* Brown, Prentiss M. "The Mackinac Bridge Story". Detroit: Wayne University Press, 1956.
* Citation
last = Kestenbaum
first = Lawrence
title = The Political Graveyard
url = http://politicalgraveyard.com
contribution = Index to Politicians: Brown, O to R
contribution-url = http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/brown7.html
* Citation
last = Paquin
first = Ellen
year = 2007
title = Prentiss Brown Jr. Recalls Half Century of Progress in St. Ignace
journal = The St. Ignace News
date = May 10, 2007
url = http://www.stignacenews.com/news/2007/0510/News/010.html
* Citation
last = Time
year = 1942
title = Enter Grimly
date = December 28, 1942
journal = Time
url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,886073,00.html

External links

* [http://www.albion.edu/ac_news/releases2004-05/brownhonorsinstitute.asp Albion College press announcement]