Stimson Joseph Brown (September 17, 1854 – December 20, 1923) was an American astronomer and Naval officer with the rank of Commodore.

He was educated at Cornell University (1871–1872) and at the United States Naval Academy, where he graduated first of forty-two in the Class of 1876.

[1][2] Brown served on the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, became professor of mathematics (USN) in 1883, and astronomical director of the United States Naval Observatory in 1898.

Brown was the author of Practical Algebra (1908, 1910) and Analytical Geometry and Curve Tracing (1907; revised edition, 1912), texts for the use of midshipmen.

[5][6] After his first wife's death in 1912, Brown married Elizabeth Sharp Pettit, the widow of a U.S. Army officer, on November 12, 1913.