He attended Santa Ana Junior College and then Stanford University, where he graduated with a degree in history in 1932.

He is survived by his companion Pauline Howland, two sisters, a son and three step-children, two granddaughters, and six great-grandchildren.

[2] In 1998, Brown started the process of establishing the Japanese Historical Text Initiative (JHTI), which is a searchable online database of Japanese historical documents and English translations.

[3] The development of JHTI involved negotiations with the University of Tokyo Press and Japan's National Institute of Japanese Literature.

[4] In an overview of writings by and about Brown, OCLC/WorldCat lists roughly 40+ works in 80+ publications in 4 languages and 1,500+ library holdings.