On January 23, 1993, our country lost one of its most distinguished jurists, former Fifth Circuit Chief Judge John Robert Brown.

John Robert Brown was born on December 10, 1909, in Funk, Nebraska. After receiving his A.B. degree from the University of Nebraska in 1930, he attended the University of Michigan Law School, where he was awarded the Order of the Coif and graduated first in his class in 1932.

Later the same year, he joined the Houston law firm Royston & Rayzor, now Royston, Rayzor, Vickery & Williams, where he remained until 1955. His tenure there was interrupted from 1942 to 1945 by his service in the Pacific Theater as a Major in the United States Army. After the war, he returned to Royston & Rayzor, where he became a senior partner and specialized in admiralty, maritime, and transportation matters. During those years, he was recognized as one of the nation's leading admiralty lawyers and participated in many significant cases, most notably the famous Texas City disaster litigation.

President Eisenhower appointed Judge Brown to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on July 27, 1955, and he entered duty on September 12, 1955. He remained a judge of that court for nearly 38 years. For twelve of those years, from July 17, 1967, to December 10, 1979, he served as Chief Judge of the Fifth Circuit. During this time, Judge Brown was the Fifth Circuit representative to the Judicial Conference of the United States, where he served on its Executive Committee from 1972 to 1979 and on the Committee of the Judicial Branch from 1982 to 1987. He became a senior judge on July 20, 1984, but continued to participate actively in judicial service on the Fifth Circuit, and on other circuits as well. His judicial career extended until a week or so before his death. In all, he wrote 1,487 opinions, not including dissents, concurrences, and per curiams.

Judge Brown, among many other honors, was awarded honorary LL.D. degrees from the University of Michigan in 1959, from the University of Nebraska in 1965, and from Tulane University in 1979. He received the American Judicature Society Herbert Hartley Award in 1985 and the Anti-Defamation League Legion Award in 1990. The Judge John R. Brown Admiralty Collection of the University of Houston Law Library was dedicated in his honor in 1992. In addition to his judicial service, Judge Brown was committed to the improvement of the administration of justice by lecturing at numerous law schools throughout the country. He was a Proctor of the Maritime Law Association of the United States, a member of the American Law Institute, the Institute of Judicial Administration, the American Judicature Society, and numerous bar associations.

He also served his fellow man in many other ways.

He was a trustee of Austin College in Sherman, Texas. A lifelong active Presbyterian, he was a member of the First Presbyterian Church in Houston from 1937 until his death and served as a Deacon, Elder, and Superintendent of the Sunday School. He loved opera and symphony music and served on the Board of the Houston Grand Opera. Before entering the judiciary, he was an active Republican, serving as an Eisenhower delegate to the 1952 Republican National Convention and Chairman of the Harris County Republican Party in 1953, who helped make the two-party system a reality in Texas politics.

Judge Brown is perhaps best known for his leadership of the Fifth Circuit during the turbulent 1960s and early 1970s in helping to bring about the reality of desegregation to the South against the most massive resistance. Perhaps the single best known of Judge Brown's opinions and regarded by him as his most important work, is his 1959 dissent in the Tuskegee racial gerrymandering case of Gomillion vs. Lightfoot, which was essentially adopted by the Supreme Court and is justly viewed as the well-spring of modern redistricting and voting rights jurisprudence.

Judge Brown is widely regarded by bench and bar as having "written the book" in admiralty and in a wide variety of other fields as well.

Equally significant are Judge Brown's vast accomplishments as a judicial administrator. These include the innovative screening and summary calendar procedures that he brought to the Fifth Circuit and are used throughout the country today. It has been said that Judge Brown had one of the finest, most brilliant minds to have ever graced the bench. He joyfully put it to good work with an uncanny blend of practicality, resolution, and idealism.

John Robert Brown's internal compass truly guided him as he steered though life and the law, both of which he loved so much. He was a great judge and a great man. Those that knew him remember him with the deepest affection and respect.