{{short description|American minister, professor and philanthropist (1865-1943)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=May 2023}} {{infobox person | name = William Adams Brown | image = William Adams Brown (FCB, 1918).png | caption = William Adams Brown | birth_date = December 29, 1865 | birth_place = New York City, United States | death_date = {{death date and age|1943|12|15|1865|12|29}} | death_place = New York City, United States | spouse = {{marriage|Helen Gilman Noyes|1892}} | children = 4, including son<br>{{nowrap|Winthrop Gilman "Bob" Brown}} | relatives = Descendants of Robert Coe | father = John Crosby Brown | mother = Mary Elizabeth Adams Brown | education = St. Paul's School | alma_mater = Yale University<br>{{nowrap|Union Theological Seminary}} }} '''William Adams Brown''' (December 29, 1865 – December 15, 1943) was an American minister, professor and philanthropist.
==Early life== Brown was born in New York City on December 29, 1865, and named after his maternal grandfather, the Rev. William Adams.<ref name="columbia">{{cite web |last1=Sokolow |first1=Daniel |title=John Crosby Brown Papers, 1876 – 1909 |url=https://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/img/assets/6397/BrownJC_FA53105PDF.pdf |website=www.columbia.edu |publisher=The Burke Library Archives, Union Theological Seminary |access-date=February 28, 2019 |date=July 1995}}</ref> He was the eldest son of John Crosby Brown and Mary Elizabeth Adams Brown. His siblings were Eliza Coe Adams,<ref name="Brown2018"/> Mary Magoun Brown,<ref name="Brown2018">{{cite book |last1=Brown |first1=Sally B. |title=A Gift of Sound: The Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments |date=2018 |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |isbn=9781588396365 |page=8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JDtnDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA8 |access-date=February 28, 2019 |language=en}}</ref> James Crosby Brown, Thatcher Magoun Brown, and Amy Brighthurst Brown (1878–1960).<ref name="Brown2018"/>
His father was a merchant banker and partner in Brown Bros. & Co., an investment bank founded by his grandfather and grand-uncles, including George Brown and Sir William Brown, 1st Baronet.<ref name="Brown1917">{{cite book |last1=Brown |first1=Mary Elizabeth |title=Alexander Brown and His Descendants, 1764–1916 |date=1917 |publisher=Abbey Print. |location=East Orange, N.J. |url=https://archive.org/details/alexanderbrownhi1917brow |access-date=July 19, 2019}}</ref>
Brown graduated from St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire before attending Yale University where he received an A.B. degree in 1886, an A.M. degree in 1888 and a PhD in 1901. He also graduated from Union Theological Seminary in 1890 and was ordained in the Presbyterian Church in 1893. He also studied with Adolf von Harnack at the University of Berlin from 1890 to 1892.<ref name="WABcolumbia">{{cite web |last1=Sokolow |first1=Daniel |title=William Adams Brown Papers, 1865–1938] |url=https://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/img/assets/6397/BrownWA_FA53105PDF.pdf |date=August 1995|website=www.columbia.edu |publisher=The Burke Library Archives of Union Theological Seminary |access-date=January 18, 2022}}</ref>
==Career== After returning to the United States in 1892, Brown joined the faculty of Union Theological Seminary as an instructor of Church History. Less than a year later, he was asked him to shift fields and teach Systematic Theology. Within five years, he was named Roosevelt Chair of Systematic Theology.<ref name="WABcolumbia"/> He retired in 1936.<ref>{{cite news |title=DR. WILLIAM A. BROWN TO LEAVE SEMINARY; Member of Union Faculty for 44 Years Will Retire at the Age of 70. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1936/05/01/archives/dr-william-a-brown-to-leave-seminary-member-of-union-faculty-for-44.html |access-date=January 18, 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=May 1, 1936}}</ref>
Brown served as chairman of the Presbyterian Church's Home Missions Committee, through which he organized and ran the American Parish on the Upper East Side and the Labor Temple in the East Village neighborhoods of Manhattan. He was also instrumental in the founding of Union Settlement in East Harlem where he was largely responsible for fundraising. Union Settlement is one of the oldest settlement houses in New York City and is East Harlem's largest social service agency serving the poor.<ref name="WABcolumbia"/>
He was a member of the Yale Corporation from 1917 to 1934, and was acting president of Yale University from 1919 to 1920.<ref>{{Cite book |title=A Teacher and His Times: A Story of Two Worlds |last=Brown |first=William Adams |publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons |year=1940 |location=New York City}}</ref>
==Personal life== In 1892, Brown was married to Helen Gilman Noyes (1867–1942), a daughter of Daniel Rogers Noyes and Helen Abia (née Gilman) Noyes. The family lived at 49 East 80th Street in New York City and had a summer home on Mount Desert Island in Maine where they befriended many prominent people, including Charles W. Eliot, president of Harvard, Seth Low, president of Columbia and later Mayor of New York, and John D. Rockefeller Jr. They had four children:
* John Crosby Brown (1892–1950), the president of Tamblyn & Brown, a public relations counsel and managers of fund-raising campaigns.<ref name="JCBObit1950">{{cite news |title=JOHN C. BROWN, 57, PUBLICIST, IS DEAD; Head of Firm Here Which Had Managed Huge Fund-Raising Campaigns in Recent Years |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1950/07/27/archives/john-c-brown-57-publicist-is-dead-head-of-firm-here-which-had.html |access-date=January 18, 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=July 27, 1950}}</ref> * William Adams Brown Jr. (1894–1957)<ref name="WABcolumbia"/> * Winthrop Gilman "Bob" Brown (1907–1987), who served as United States Ambassador to Laos and Korea.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1987/05/27/winthrop-brown-ex-envoy-to-laos-korea-dies-at-79/7924869a-654e-4133-a8bf-62efbc736924/ |title=WINTHROP BROWN, EX-ENVOY TO LAOS, KOREA, DIES AT 79 |date=May 27, 1987 |newspaper=Washington Post |access-date=June 23, 2018 |language=en-US |issn=0190-8286}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/27/obituaries/winthrop-g-brown-ex-state-dept-official.html |title=Winthrop G. Brown, Ex-State Dept. Official |date=May 27, 1987 |work=The New York Times |access-date=May 23, 2018 |language=en}}</ref> * Helen Adams Brown (1910–1928),<ref>{{cite news |title=Obituary – BROWN |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1928/09/27/archives/obituary-4-no-title.html |access-date=January 18, 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=September 27, 1928 |page=24}}</ref> who contracted infantile paralysis just before she was to begin college at Vassar College and died six days later.
Brown died in New York City on December 15, 1943.<ref name="WABObit1943">{{cite news |title=W. A. BROWN DIES; MINISTER 50 YEARS; Presbyterian Leader, Former Union Seminary Professor, on Yale Corporation |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1943/12/16/archives/w-a-brown-dies-minister-50-years-presbyterian-leader-former-union.html |access-date=January 18, 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=December 16, 1943}}</ref><ref name="1943Rites">{{cite news |title=Dr. W. A. Brown Rites Tomorrow |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1943/12/17/archives/dr-w-a-brown-rites-tomorrow.html |access-date=January 18, 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=December 17, 1943}}</ref><ref name="1943Clergy">{{cite news |title=CLERGY AT SERVICE FOR DR. W. A. BROWN; Rites of Ex-Professar at Union Seminary Held in Brick Church |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1943/12/19/archives/clergy-at-service-for-dr-w-a-brown-rites-of-exprofessar-at-union.html |access-date=January 18, 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=December 19, 1943}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist|30em}}
==External links== * [https://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/img/assets/6397/BrownWA_FA53105PDF.pdf William Adams Brown Papers, 1865–1938] at The Burke Library Archives of Union Theological Seminary
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, William Adams}} Category:1865 births Category:1943 deaths Category:St. Paul's School (New Hampshire) alumni Category:Yale University alumni Category:Union Theological Seminary alumni Category:Free University of Berlin alumni Category:Clergy from New York City Category:Presbyterian Church in the United States of America ministers Category:20th-century American Presbyterian ministers William Adams