Brown was the founder and first president of Omicron Chi Epsilon in 1955, while a student at City College of New York.

Friends and colleagues report that they were amazed watching this polite and deferring young person "pestering" Nobel Prize winners and other giants of the economics profession to endorse, become involved in, and support this initiative.

The first annual meeting of Omicron Chi Epsilon was held at Fordham University in New York City in the spring of 1958.

[3] Omicron Delta Epsilon joined the Association of College Honor Societies in 1965 and was readmitted in 1981.

A detailed history of ODE, written by long-serving executive secretary-treasurer of the organization William D. Gunther, was published in 2013 by The American Economist in recognition of its fiftieth birthday.

Members of Omicron Delta Epsilon may wear royal blue and gold honor cords at graduation.

[2] It presents the John R. Commons Award biennially to an outstanding economist in recognition of academic achievements and for service both to the economics profession and to Omicron Delta Epsilon.