Ernest J. Brown ’27

Browny died of congestive heart failure on Dec. 31, 2001, in Houston.

Having prepared at Lawrenceville, Browny came to Princeton from Lake Providence, La., and graduated Phi Beta Kappa. After earning his LLB at Harvard, he practiced and taught law in Buffalo, N.Y., served in the Office of Strategic Services during WWII, had a brief stint as dean of the Buffalo Law School, and then joined the faculty of Harvard Law School. In 1970 he became professor in residence in the tax division of the Dept. of Justice, serving there, principally in the appellate section, until Jan. 2001.

Known as "the Professor" to generations of students at Harvard Law School (among whom are numbered five current justices of the Supreme Court) and to decades of colleagues at the Justice Dept., he was characterized as gentle, formal, scholarly, and demanding. Browny saw tax law as an intellectual exercise, viewing the tax code as similar to the Constitution — and the Constitution as similar to the code.

He is survived by a niece, a nephew, several grandnieces and grandnephews, and a host of admiring students and colleagues to whom the class extends its condolences.

The Class of 1927