Walter Folger Brown was born on May 31, 1869 in Massillon, Ohio, the son of James Marshall Brown and Lavinia Folger. Shortly after his birth the family moved to Toledo, where James Brown became a lawyer. A Republican, he served as postmaster of Toledo from 1890 to 1894.
Walter graduated from Western Reserve Academy in 1888 and received the A. B. from Harvard in 1892. Brown's father persuaded him to attend Harvard Law School. He graduated from Harvard in 1892.
During the summer of 1891 Walter Brown had campaigned for William McKinley for governor of Ohio. He also was a reporter for the Toledo Blade and became city editor shortly after graduation. But Brown's father persuaded him to attend Harvard Law School.
In 1894, after about two years at Harvard, Brown was admitted to the Ohio bar. He remained a partner in his father's firm until 1905, when he founded Brown, Hahn and Sanger.
In 1899 he became a member of the Ohio Republican Central Committee. In 1906 he became its chairman, and working with the conservatives, he stemmed the progressive insurgency of that year. He remained chairman until 1912. In 1908 he backed the presidency of William Howard Taft. At the Ohio Republican convention two years later, Brown worked with other standpatters to defend the Taft administration against the progressive Republican groundswell.
He emerged the presidential candidacy of Warren G. Harding in 1920. Harding won Brown's support, and Brown contributed significantly to Harding's preconvention campaign, eventually serving as Harding's floor manager at the national convention. Consequently Harding favored Brown as his Senate replacement. But Brown, in the only elective office he sought, lost to Frank B. Willis in the primary. Harding then appointed Brown chairman of the Joint Congressional Reorganization Committee.
Under Brown's leadership (1921 - 1924) the committee recommended sweeping changes, many of which were later adopted, including the combining of the War and Navy Departments into the Department of Defense and the consolidation of related services into the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. Brown so impressed Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover that he became his assistant secretary in 1927.
During the 1928 presidential campaign Hoover relied extensively on Brown, particularly in Ohio. After the election he appointed Brown postmaster general. At age sixty the bespectacled and scholarly-appearing Brown had reached the pinnacle of his career. The press described him as self-effacing, soft-spoken, and low-key. Nevertheless, he attracted national attention by requesting $3, 500 for a new official vehicle because a low car roof had crushed the silk hat he wore to Hoover's inauguration.
As postmaster general he improved the efficiency of the national post office. He also expanded the air transport of mail by negotiating favorable contracts with large aviation companies.
In 1934 a Senate investigation revealed that the Post Office Department had not held competitive bidding, which hurt the small independent lines, and had subsidized several aviation holding companies. Brown apparently sought to use airmail contracts to encourage major airlines to expand passenger service.
Nonetheless, enough irregularities existed to cause the Roosevelt administration to cancel the contracts. Brown played a leading part in Hoover's 1932 campaign for reelection. In 1933 he was board chairman, and from 1934 to 1946 he was president, of the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad Company.
He remained as Republican national committeeman until 1936 and was a delegate to the next three Republican national conventions. He then returned to Toledo, Ohio, where, after a long retirement, he died. He was buried next to his wife Katherin Hafer in Woodlawn Cemetery in Toledo.
Brown was one of the most durable politicians of the twentieth century. He served three presidents and helped to elect several others. Herbert Hoover once said that Brown possessed "a greater knowledge of the federal machinery than any other man in the United States. " Brown's interests and activities in business were numerous and included service as president and chairman of the board of the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad Company.
Politics was always Brown's main interest. Beginning as a precinct worker, he was elected chairman of the Toledo Republican Central Committee in 1897. That year he was instrumental in the election of reformer Samuel "Golden Rule" Jones as mayor. But Jones's independence caused a party split in Toledo. Jones temporarily joined Senator Joseph Foraker, while Brown allied with Senator Mark Hanna.
In 1899, Brown's opposition forced Jones to seek reelection as a nonpartisan. The two fought until Jones's death in 1904. By then Brown's machine dominated Toledo politics. Brown was the attorney for the local traction company and also represented the utilities, breweries, and other corporations needing assistance. Despite his silky manner and polished speech, he was as much a political boss as the crude, unlettered George Cox of Cincinnati. Brown also played a significant part in state politics.
In the fall of 1911, Brown proclaimed himself a progressive. He was elected a delegate to the Ohio Constitutional Convention of 1912, where he introduced progressive amendments to the state constitution. He also supported Theodore Roosevelt's unsuccessful fight for the Republican presidential nomination in 1912. When Roosevelt formed the Progressive party that June, Brown directed his campaign in Ohio. Brown claimed that he had acted for the Republican party's welfare in supporting Roosevelt; more likely he became a Progressive to survive politically. But Taft had not always consulted him on local appointments, nor had he accommodated Brown when he sought a reconsideration of an antitrust indictment involving a client. After Roosevelt's defeat Brown continued as Progressive party state chairman. In 1916 he returned to the Republican party despite strong conservative opposition.
He was a member f the Toledo Humane Society (1911-61).
On September 10, 1903, he married Katherine Hafer; they had no children.
