In June 1936, his father discovered oil in Turner Valley and ushered in a new era in Alberta's petroleum industry.

The debt forced him to sell his share of Home, which prompted the intervention of the federal government prevent a foreign takeover.

After he found a buyer in the Consumers' Gas Company, Brown stayed on as president of Home, but died shortly thereafter at age 57.

On 16 June 1936, Robert Arthur Brown Sr. and his partners, Max Bell and John W. Moyer, discovered crude oil in Turner Valley with their Royalties No.

[2] After the war, Robert Jr. concluded that the oil industry in Alberta was done, and believe instead that he could make money importing consumer goods and electronics from the United States.

Brown and Home proceeded to acquire 450,000 acres of leases on the North Slope and drill two well, which cost the company $40 million.

His most promising offer came from Ashland, though government ministers Joe Greene and Jack Austin pressured him not to sell to foreign interests.

Brown found a Canadian buyer finally in the Consumers' Gas Company, a utility based in Toronto.

Besides his involvement with Home, Brown also served as a director of Trans-Canada Pipe Lines, Crown Trust, Air Canada, and Canadian National Railway.

On 18 February 1950 at his mother's house in Calgary, Brown married Genevieve Mary Sulpher (1925–2007) of Pembroke, Ontario.