Nathaniel H. Brown ’51

Nat was born April 23, 1929, in New York to Ralph and Esther Davis Brown. He attended Putney for two years and graduated cum laude from Brooklyn Poly in 1947. At Princeton he majored in history, belonged to Court and roomed with Irwin Brody and Dick Hammer.

For two years after graduation he served in the Army Security Agency and was present at Eniwetok Atoll, where in 1952 he witnessed the first H-bomb test.

Nat worked for the American Bible Society as a research associate starting in 1958. He earned a master’s degree in English with honors from Syracuse and, in 1962, a Ph.D. in English from Columbia. He was a professor at Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, Va., for 30 years, where he taught English literature. In 1979 Harvard University Press published his book, Sexuality and Feminism in Shelley.

By 2007 Nat had retired to New Mexico to be with his son, Whitney, and his family. He died Nov. 2, 2012, in Santa Fe County from Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. In addition to Whitney, Nat is survived by his daughter, Curry; son MacKenzie; granddaughter Nola; his sister, Eleanor Nelson; and brothers Geoffrey and Cooper. He and his late wife, Derval Cohalan, were divorced.