Brown began his educational career by teaching in rural high schools while taking courses at Bates College in Lewistown, Maine.

Brown earned his bachelors in 1903 and went on to serve as a supervising principal and a district superintendent for schools in Maine and New Hampshire.

Brown married Florence Marie Sever in 1908 and became the Director of the Bureau of Research of the New Hampshire Department of Public Instruction in 1913.

Brown took over from the third president, John A. H. Keith, who ended his ten-year tenure by rebuilding the Normal School building after a devastating fire.

After the war, Brown focused on restructuring the campus’s administrative functions, including implementing a letter-based grading system, institution two and three-credit-hour courses, and refining major and minor areas of study.

Brown’s tenure began with optimism and hope; he planned to bring similar administrative changes he implemented at Oshkosh to Illinois State Normal and modernize the growing school.

Brown reorganized the administrative and academic structure of the university, implementing departments (then known as ‘divisions’) and grouping similar courses into like areas.