Earl Browning, a decorated Army colonel who arrested the notorious Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie (known as the Butcher of Lyon), died Oct. 23, 2013. He was 96.
Browning graduated from Iowa in 1937, and in 1938 earned a master’s degree in journalism there. In World War II he served in the Army’s Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC), earning a Bronze Star in the Battle of the Bulge. He headed a CIC operations unit in Germany in 1947 that arrested Barbie. Released over Browning’s strong objections, Barbie later got to Bolivia and remained there until finally being extradited to France in 1983. He was convicted of crimes against humanity and died in a French prison in 1991.
Returning to the United States in 1949, Browning became an Army public-affairs officer and later a director of Armed Forces Radio and Television. In 1953 he earned a Princeton master’s degree in politics in addition to a master’s in public affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School. He retired from the Army in 1971.
A former APGA board member, Browning contributed generously to the Graduate School’s Alumni Giving campaign for 50 years.
Browning was predeceased by Elizabeth, his wife of 64 years. He is survived by three children, Earl III ’71, Andrew ’71, and Margaret p’14; six grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA .