Clinton Brown - Obituary

LINTON EUGENE BROWN, of Heritage Harbour, Annapolis, MD died at home after a long battle with cancer, on 21 July 2008; 39 years and a day after the Apollo lunar module, which he was head of the design team for, landed on the moon. He was born June 1, 1920 in New York, NY but grew up in Madison, NJ. He graduated from Purdue University with Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering degrees and was awarded PiTau Sigma, Engineering Society. While at Purdue, he was also a player, composer and arranger in the Irv Givens big band. He joined NACA (now know as NASA) working in jet propulsion and supersonic aeronautics. During WW2, he served in the US Army; but assigned to NACA to pursue critical wartime work. He was awarded the Rockefeller Public Service Award, attended Gottingen University, West Germany. Clinton headed a team at NASA for designing the lunar landing module after teaching the first seven astronauts and others at NASA orbital mechanics and space flight. He taught graduate courses in theoretical mechanics at University of Virginia. In 1964, he joined Hydronautics Inc., and his projects focused on artificial kidney research, desalination, ocean thermal energy, marine physiology and aircraft wake vortices. He also taught graduate aerodynamics at the University of MD. In 1984 he retired from NASA and worked part time at Dynaflo on a poison gas detection project for protection against acts of terrorism or disaster. Later he taught graduate compressible flow aerodynamics at Johns Hopkins University. He was married to Jeanie Brown in 1966 and they moved to Heritage Harbor in 1995 where Clinton was active on many committees including the fiscal review, A&E, building and chaired the swimming pool committee. He belonged to Glen Burnie United Methodist Church and was a member of the Annapolis American Legion and Fleet Reserve. He enjoyed playing the piano and trumpet and loved listening to music, swimming, playing tennis, and sailing. He is predeceased by his first wife Jean Poythress. He is survived by his wife, Jeanie Brown of Annapolis, two sons, Dale Brown of Greensboro, NC and Gary Brown of Norfolk, VA, his step daughter, Linda Stiles of Washington, DC, four grandchildren and three great grandchildren and many loved nieces and nephews and many friends. Friends are invited to Clinton's Life Celebration on Saturday, from 10:30am until time of service at 11:00 A.M. at the George P. Kalas Funeral Home, 2973 Solomons Island Road, Edgewater, MD. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Hospice of the Chesapeake, 445 Defense Highway, Annapolis, MD 21401.