Background
Brown, William Burbridge was born on September 10, 1912 in Chillicothe, Ohio, United States. Son of Henry Renick and Mabel R. (Downs) Brown.
Brown, William Burbridge was born on September 10, 1912 in Chillicothe, Ohio, United States. Son of Henry Renick and Mabel R. (Downs) Brown.
He attended the Chillicothe public schools, received a bachelor"s degree from Williams College in 1934, and a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1937.
He was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1938, and practiced that year in Toledo, before returning to Chillicothe in 1939 at the firm Simpson and Brown. Brown left Chillicothe in 1942 to work in Washington, District of Columbia as a lawyer for the Office of Price Administration. He transferred to Honolulu, Hawaii in 1943, and worked for the Office of Price Administration there until 1946.
In 1946, President Harry Truman appointed Brown to the Territory of Hawaii Court of Tax Appeals, and in 1947, Truman appointed him Hawaii Territory Treasurer.
In 1951, the President appointed him to the Second Circuit Court for the Territory of Hawaii. Brown returned to Chillicothe in 1955, and practiced privately for a year.
In 1956, he began a four-year term as Chillicothi Municipal Court Judge. He was the first Democrat elected to a seat in the 4th District.
In 1972, Brown defeated incumbent Republican justice Louis J. Schneider, Junior. for a six-year term on the Ohio Supreme Court.
In 1984, Brown was already more than seventy years old, and was prohibited by state law from running for another term. His term ended December 31, 1984. William B. Brown married Jayne Stone on August 18, 1943.
They had two children.
The couple planned to travel in retirement, but William B. Brown suffered a fatal stroke as a consequence of brain cancer. After Brown"s death, justice J. Craig Wright said: “He was one of the best legal minds we’ve had on the court in the last twenty years.
He was a forward-looking person. He kept the best of the past in his decisions along with the best of what we have now.
I admired him.”.
Vestryman St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Chillicothe, 1957-1961. Member American Bar Association, Ohio Bar Association, Hawaii Bar Association, Ross County Bar Association (President 1966), American Judicature Society, Institute Judicial Administration, Lincoln's Inn Society (treasurer 1936-1937), Delta Kappa Epsilon. Clubs: Rotary, Masons, Shriners, Columbus Athletic, Chillicothe Country.
Pacific (Honolulu); University (Toledo). University (Washington).
Married Jayne Stone, August 18, 1943. Children– Susan Brown Eshbaugh, Henry Renick.