Edmund G. Brown

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Gov. Edmund Brown has made a profound contribution to UCLA and to higher education that merits very special recognition. As governor of California, his higher education master plan charted the course that has firmly established the University of California as the finest public university system in the United States and which has led to the recent rankings that place Berkeley and UCLA among the nation’s top five leading institutions of learning.

Higher education experienced a period of dramatic expansion during Brown’s eight years in office: three new UC campuses were opened at Irvine, San Diego and Santa Cruz along with six new state colleges. The qualitative growth of education in the state is regarded as a product of his vision of the potential energy inherent in the individual campuses of the university and state college systems.

Brown is a senior partner in the law firm of Ball, Hunt, Hart, Brown and Baerwitz, specializing in international and business law. His energies also are focused on the Edmund G. “Pat” Brown Institute of Government Affairs, a non-profit research and educational organization dedicated to projects to benefit the state of California, and of which is he honorary chairman.

Brown’s political career began in 1943 when he was elected district attorney of the city and county of San Francisco. He became attorney general of the state eight years later and in 1958 was elected governor, a post he held until 1966. Active in many community concerns, the governor has served as chair of a number of special projects concerning social welfare and education. Presently, he chairs the board of trustees of the City of Hope.

UCLA is proud to embrace Gov. Brown as an honorary alumnus and to recognize his monumental achievements in advancing the quality of the University of California and higher education in the state.