[citation needed] During World War II, Brown served in the Twenty-fourth Infantry Regiment of the United States Army as second lieutenant in Japan.

[3] In 1966, Brown defeated incumbent Democrat Paul H. Todd, Jr., one of the "Five Fluke Freshmen"[citation needed], to be elected as a Republican to the U.S. House of Representatives from Michigan's 3rd congressional district for the Ninetieth and to the five succeeding Congresses, serving from January 3, 1967 to January 3, 1979.

[2] Brown took the lead in October 1972 in obstructing the efforts of Rep. Wright Patman, D-TX, to have the House Banking and Currency Committee investigate the flow of illegal campaign funds to the Watergate burglars.

By July 1973, with the scheme unraveling in the courts and in televised Senate hearings, Brown was admitting he had been wrong to do so.

[citation needed] Brown died on August 27, 1998 in Washington, D.C.[5] and was laid to rest in Schoolcraft, Michigan.