Pat Brown

Edmund Gerald "Pat " Brown sr. (* April 21 1905 in San Francisco, California, † February 16, 1996 in Beverly Hills, California ) is an American politician (Democratic Party). He was from 1959 to 1967 the 32th Governor of California.

His son, Jerry Brown was from 1975 to 1983 also governor of California and has held this office since 2011 again.

Life

Edmund Brown, known as Pat, was born on April 21, 1905 in San Francisco. His father had moved during the gold rush there and had made a dealer independently. He grew up with two brothers and a sister. After the Lowell High School ended, he began law studies at the San Francisco Law School, from which he graduated in 1927 with a Bachelor. In the same year he was admitted to the Bar Association. By 1943, Brown worked as a lawyer in California. Although he tried to take several times in politics foot, so he ran in 1928 as a Republican for a seat in Parliament, California, but could, as well as 1939, when the Democratic candidate, as he prepares for the Office of the Prosecutor in a California district wanted to choose not to enforce.

Policy

For the first time Brown was victorious in the election in 1943 to the Prosecutor of his home district of San Francisco. Four years later he was re-elected for a second term, but which he did not finish, as he had himself elected in 1950 to the Attorney General of California. In the primaries for re-election in 1954, in which the individual parties in advance select their candidates for the election, has been particularly noteworthy that he was elected to both the Democrats and the Republicans ran and even by both parties. As both parties were able to agree on Brown, his re-election was a mere formality. In November 1958 he won the gubernatorial election against the Republican Senator William F. Knowland by a clear majority. His new office, he took up on January 5, 1959. During his time as Governor Brown championed the expansion of highways and the development of water supply systems. Especially the southern parts of the country should be harnessed. He expanded considerably social services and the public school system. During his tenure, the construction of three other universities and six colleges, which should offer all children to study at great prices fell.

During the 1964 presidential election he was traded as a possible vice presidential candidate of the incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson. However, Johnson ultimately chose Hubert H. Humphrey as his running mate.

In the elections of 1962, he won against the eventual President Richard Nixon, who shortly afterwards announced his temporary retirement from politics. In November 1966, Brown sought a third term, but lost the election in a clear result against his Republican challenger Ronald Reagan, which later should also be President of the United States. With his leaving office in January 1967, the governor he also combined his retirement from politics and so Brown worked up again in 1990 as a lawyer in California.

Family

In high school, Brown had a woman named Bernice Layne met, whom he married in 1930. They had three daughters and a son. Kathleen Brown was also later the California Legislature and Jerry Brown was like his father, also elected Governor of California. Edmund Brown died on 16 February 1996 at the age of 90 years of a heart attack.

Bibliography

• Ethan Rarick: California Rising. The Life and Times of Pat Brown. University of California Press, 2005, ISBN 0-520-23627-0.
• Roger Rapoport: California Dreaming: The Political Odyssey of Pat & Jerry Brown. Nolo Press, Berkeley, 1982, ISBN 0-917316-48-7.