George Rufus Brown (May 12, 1898 – January 22, 1983) was a prominent

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...

entrepreneur. With his brother Herman, Brown led Brown & Root Inc. to become one of the largest

construction Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form Physical object, objects, systems, or organizations,"Construction" def. 1.a. 1.b. and 1.c. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) Oxford University Pr ...

companies in the world and helped to foster the

political Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...

career of

Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...

. The George R. Brown Convention Center and the

George R. Brown School of Engineering The George R. Brown School of Engineering is an academic school at Rice University in Houston, Texas. It contains the departments of Bioengineering, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Computational Applied ...

Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a private research university in Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranked among the top universities ...

are both named in honor of him.

Early life

Brown was born on May 12, 1898 in Belton and moved in 1904 to

Temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

; both communities are in Bell County. His older brother, Herman, left

after spending less than a year there and started work in road paving. Herman's brother-in-law, Dan Root, loaned Herman money in 1919 and founded Brown & Root in 1919. George R. Brown studied at Rice University and the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,07 ...

before he graduated from the

Colorado School of Mines The Colorado School of Mines, informally called Mines, is a public research university in Golden, Colorado, founded in 1874. The school offers both undergraduate and graduate degrees in engineering, science, and mathematics, with a focus on en ...

in 1922 and joined his brother in the business. The company paved roads and built bridges and other public works in Houston.

Brown & Root, Inc.

1936–1947

In 1936, Brown & Root was awarded a contract to construct the Marshall Ford Dam (now known as the Mansfield Dam). The construction was almost stopped in 1937 but was allowed to continue when

(then a very junior congressman) helped push through special legislation. The project was part of the New Deal, and was completed in 1942. During World War II, the company's work was expanded to military construction. Over 300 water crafts were constructed. The company was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service in 1942 for giving bonuses to employees who had agreed to donate to Lyndon B. Johnson. Brown & Root was ultimately fined $372,000.

1947–1969

In 1947, Brown created an innovative oil platform design that was the first to be built out of sight of land. For this work, Brown was awarded the Gold Medal for Distinguished Achievement from the

American Petroleum Institute The American Petroleum Institute (API) is the largest U.S. trade association for the oil and natural gas industry. It claims to represent nearly 600 corporations involved in production, refinement, distribution, and many other aspects of the ...

in 1982. Other notable projects the company was involved with were Rice Stadium, the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, the Pontchartrain Bridge, and the

Gulf Freeway Interstate 45 (I-45) is a major Interstate Highway located entirely within the US state of Texas. While most Interstate routes which have numbers ending in "5" are cross-country north–south routes, I-45 is comparatively short, with the ...

from Houston to Galveston. After Herman Brown's death in 1962, Brown & Root was merged with

Halliburton Halliburton Company is an American multinational corporation responsible for most of the world's hydraulic fracturing operations. In 2009, it was the world's second largest oil field service company. It has operations in more than 70 countries ...

NASA and Johnson Space Center

Using the power and influence gained from his success at Brown & Root, Brown became a chairman on the Rice University Council of Regents. During his time there, Brown worked in conjunction with Texas Congressman Albert Thomas to bring Johnson Space Center (JSC) to Houston. To do this Brown secured a gift of 1,020 acres of land from Humble Oil to Rice University and proceeded to donate it to NASA on Rice’s behalf. NASA accepted the donation after inspecting the area and began construction of the JSC in 1961.

Legacy

In 1951, Brown, along with his brother Herman and their wives, began the Brown Foundation. The organization donates to notable institutions such as

Southwestern University Southwestern University (Southwestern or SU) is a private liberal arts college in Georgetown, Texas. Formed in 1873 from a revival of collegiate charters granted in 1840, Southwestern is the oldest college or university in Texas. Southwestern o ...

, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. As of 2018, the Brown Foundation had given away $1.6 Billion. He lived in the

River Oaks River Oaks is a residential community located in the center of Houston, Texas, United States. Located within the 610 Loop and between Downtown and Uptown, the community spans .Archive Established in the 1920s by brothers Will Hogg and Michael H ...

area of Houston, in a house built for him. In 2017 the house was on the market for $10 million.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, George R. 1983 deaths 1898 births Colorado School of Mines alumni Rice University alumni People from Belton, Texas People from Temple, Texas Businesspeople from Texas American construction businesspeople 20th-century American businesspeople