Alfred Alexander Brown Papers

Background on Alfred Alexander Brown

The transportation economist Alfred Alexander Brown was born in Methuen, Mass., on August 2, 1908, the son of Harvey and Maude (Freeman) Brown. After receiving his bachelor's (1931) and master's degrees (1933) at Massachusetts State College in agricultural economics, the latter for a thesis on marketing Massachusetts apples, Brown pursued additional graduate study at Amherst College and at the Littauer School of Public Administration and Graduate School of Business Administration at Harvard.

In 1934, Brown was hired for a brief period as a regional representative for the New York office of the American Fruit Growers Inc. and then as a marketing specialist for the Agricultural Extension Service of the University of Vermont, however in the following year he returned to his alma mater as an assistant research professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics. Focusing of the issues surrounding marketing and transportation, he earned tenure and in 1948, promotion to full professor.

During his career at MSC and UMass, Brown was in demand as a consultant on transportation issues. Between 1941 and 1962, he worked with the Boston and Maine Railroad, and he was a consultant with the New York Central Railroad and, after its creation in 1967, with the Division of Policy and Plans for the U.S. Department of Transportation. During the Second World War, Brown also served as a transportation economist with the War Food Administration and consulted for the Office of Defense Transportation.

Throughout his time on faculty, Brown was active in university service, working as longtime treasurer of the War Memorial Building Fund and the Alumni Association, serving on the Buildings and Operations Committee of the Student Union, as advisor and trustee of the Alpha Chapter of Phi Sigma Kappa, and as a member of the Pioneer Valley chapter of Delta Nu Alpha transportation fraternity.

Retiring from the university in 1972, Brown moved to Harwich Port, Mass. For many years, he remained active in the profession as a consultant for the U.S. Department of Transportation in Africa. He died in Brewster, Mass., on May 21, 2000.