Next in Line to the Oval Office

David H. Brown was born, reared, and educated in Cleveland, OH. After graduating from high school in 1944, he was drafted into the Army and served in combat as an infantry rifleman with the 97th Division in Europe, and World War II ended, the unit did occupation in Japan. The GI Bill enabled him to get a bachelor s degree in journalism from Cleveland College in 1950. Upon graduation, he received an Army Reserve commission to 2nd lieutenant assigned to the 83rd Division. After 28 years, he retired as a lieutenant colonel having been assigned to the Office of the Chief of Information in the Pentagon as a mobilization designee. Brown began his nearly 15-year newspaper career as a copy boy with The Cleveland Press. He later became state editor of The Columbus Citizen, and returned to The Press as a porter in 1959. In 1967, he moved to the Washington, DC to begin a 24-year government public information career starting with the Department of Justice, then the Federal Aviation Administration, its parent Department of Transportation, and finally the Government Printing Office, from which he retired in 1991. He developed and conducted courses in media relations for the Department of Agriculture Graduate School.Brown received a master s degree in public relations from American University in 1980. That enabled him to later become an adjunct professor of public speaking at Montgomery College. In the University Heights suburb of Cleveland, he served on a number of commissions before becoming a city councilman. In Rockville, MD, he also served on its board of appeals. A civic activist, he was awarded a Community Hero Award from the local civic association.