Lawrence R. Brown

Lawrence Brown Obituary

On February 28, 2020 at age 72, Lawrence R. Brown died. Weary of reading obituaries noting someone’s courageous battle against cancer, Larry would not have wanted the same to be said of him, but for three years he valiantly and relentlessly sought treatment, which was often debilitating, so he could attend his son Alexander’s wedding to Erin. Sadly he did not survive to hold a grandchild.

Larry was born in Ann Arbor, Mich. He was an avid learner and became a National Merit Scholar, and attended Stanford University on a full scholarship. Larry studied abroad and spent summers working in hotels in Europe to become fluent in German. He thought he might one day become an expatriate Swiss investment banker, but decided to go to law school and attended Berkeley. After spending over 11 years in the San Francisco Bay area, which included clerking for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and working for a large law firm, in 1975, he moved to Washington, D.C. to serve on the professional staff of the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation. After being involved in the 1976 tax act, he turned down offers to work as a lawyer/lobbyist and moved to Portland to become a professor at Lewis & Clark Law School. He taught tax courses for the remainder of his career and served as “of counsel” on tax matters at a local law firm, and also as its IT person, as he was quite into computers. Larry’s other interests included politics, history, and retaining his fluency in German. In retirement he also made progress with Mandarin and Japanese.

Larry and his wife, Christine Brown, who he met in Washington, D.C., just celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary. Their son lives in Oakland, Calif.

To honor Larry’s memory, please consider donating to the Brown Family Fund at Lewis & Clark Law School, 10015 S.W. Terwilliger Blvd., Portland, OR 97219 (or call 503 768-6641). The fund supports scholarships for minority law students.

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One reply on “Lawrence R. Brown”

Professor Brown was a favorite professor of mine at L&C. I was afraid of tax subjects but he inspired my curiosity and understanding and was instrumental in my doing well in those subjects and enjoying the subject matter. I am very sad to have learned of his passing. 16+ years after law school I would still think of Professor Brown sometimes, and how much Iâ€™d look forward to his classes and how much I learned from him. My sincere condolences to Professor Brownâ€™s family.