George Edward Brown, Jr. was born on March 6, 1920 in Holtville, California. Brown attended Holtville High School, where he graduated in 1935 as class valedictorian at the age of 15. He worked as a blacksmith’s apprentice while attending El Centro Junior College, and then attended the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). While at UCLA, Brown lived at the University Cooperative Housing Association (UCHA), a student housing cooperative serving the UCLA campus that fought to become the first desegregated housing on campus and where Brown roomed with Luther Goodwin, the first black student to be able live in Westwood.

While attending school Brown also worked as a powerhouse and station operator for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power from 1941-1942, before being drafted for military service during World War II. Brown initially registered as a religious objector to war and was assigned administrative work under the Civilian Public Service (CPS) in 1942. After two years working at a CPS camp in Oregon, Brown decided to rescind his conscientious objector status and enlist in the U.S. Army, requesting combat duty in the infantry. After training he was assigned to Officer Candidate School and was commissioned as a second lieutenant before being released from active duty in 1946. Brown returned to UCLA and graduated with a degree in industrial physics in 1946, and continued working for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power in engineering and administrative positions until 1957. Before working solely as a legislator, Brown also held positions as a management consultant and vice president of a savings and loan association.

Brown entered his first political office in 1954, when he was elected to the Monterey Park City Council, which he followed by serving as Mayor of Monterey Park from 1955-1956. He was then elected to the California State Legislature as an Assemblyman for the 45th Assembly District, where he served from 1958-1962. While in the Assembly, Brown served as a member of committees on education, local government, industrial relations and efficiency and economy in government, and was appointed by Governor Edmund “Pat” Brown to his Advisory Commission on Housing Problems. He notably also introduced one of the first pieces of legislation aimed at removing lead from gasoline in 1961, twenty years before the Environmental Protection Agency took actions to implement unleaded gasoline regulations.

In 1962, Brown ran and was elected to Congress as a representative of California’s 29th district, where he served parts of Eastern Los Angeles for eight years. In 1970, Brown chose to run for the United States Senate, but was narrowly defeated in the primary election by fellow Congressman John Tunney, who went on to win in the November general election. Brown returned to Congress in 1973, as the Representative of the new 38th congressional district in the Inland Empire, which he represented until 1975. Brown would serve the Inland Empire for the rest of his tenure in Congress, as a representative of the 36th district from 1975-1993 and the 42nd district from 1993-1999.

Brown served on a number of Congressional Committees, including the Committee on Education and Labor (1963-1964), the Committee on Veteran’s Affairs (1963-1971), the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (1985-1987) and the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy (1976-1977). Brown served on the Committee on Agriculture from 1973-1999, and was Chairman of the Subcommittee on Departmental Operations, Research and Foreign Agriculture (DORFA) from 1981-1990, and Vice Chairman of DORFA from 1991-1992. He is perhaps best known for his service on the Committee on Science, of which he was a member from 1965-1999 and was the ranking Democratic Member from 1995-1999. Brown was also the Committee Chairman from 1991-1994, and served at various points as chairman of the Subcommittee on Science, Research and Technology, the Subcommittee on Environment and the Atmosphere, and the Subcommittee on Transportation, Aviation and Materials.

Brown was an early proponent of efforts to regulate pollution and prevent climate change, including authoring legislation creating the National Climate Program in 1977, supporting the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970 and helping author, pass and further develop the Clean Air Act in the 1960s and 1970s. He also was very involved in regulating the use of pesticides, cleaning up hazardous waste sites nationwide, and protecting California deserts and old growth forests from development. Brown sought to encourage and facilitate research into the use of alternative energy sources such as solar and hydrogen energy, as well as the development of alternative fuels for vehicles. Brown also promoted federal efforts to foster better earthquake preparedness and responses, including writing and passing the Earthquake Hazards Reduction Act of 1977, which established the nation’s program to develop methods of making buildings more earthquake resistant. He was strongly opposed to the escalation of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, and worked to promote arms control, include his efforts against the implementation of the Strategic Defense Initiative. Brown was also well known for his support of scientific and technological research, working as a member of the Subcommittee on Science, Research and Development to found the Office of Technology Assessment in 1972, and consistently authoring and supporting legislation to increase federal support for researching emerging technologies.

Brown passed away on July 15th, 1999, at the age of 79 of an infection contracted after heart valve replacement surgery, after an almost 35 year career in office.