It is with great sadness that Sherman College shares the news of the passing of retired chiropractor, Regent and honorary Sherman College Board member Dr. Gordon Brown on December 30, 2020. Brown had celebrated his 99th birthday this summer. He was predeceased by his wife of more than 70 years, Helen McPike Brown, in August 2016.
While the couple made many generous financial gifts to Sherman College through the years, President Edwin Cordero, D.C., says the gift of their time was the most precious. “Perhaps the greatest gift the Browns bestowed upon us was the opportunity for our campus community to get to know them personally and learn from their involvement in chiropractic history and the work they did to preserve and advance the profession,” Cordero shared.
“I am thankful for their support, their guidance, and their loyalty,” Cordero said. “Dr. Gordon Brown gave to chiropractic and to Sherman College unselfishly; he and Helen had a true love for the profession. Our thoughts and prayers are with Dr. Brown’s family. He will be dearly missed.”
The Browns donated their home in Sedona, AZ, to Sherman College in 1999; funds from the donation were used to construct the Brown House and Museum on campus. The structure served as an on-campus residence for the couple, and Dr. Gordon Brown visited campus regularly, often attending graduation ceremonies and other major campus events. The lower level of the Brown House features a museum with the college’s historical chiropractic holdings. The Browns’ donation remains the largest gift in kind in the history of the college.
Gordon Brown was a 1942 graduate of Palmer College of Chiropractic; he practiced in Louisville, KY, for two years and in Logansport, IN, for 19 years and was instrumental in getting the laws changed in Indiana to allow chiropractors to practice. Though not a chiropractor herself, Helen Brown had a rare appreciation of chiropractic philosophy and a unique commitment to sharing chiropractic with others. Originally from Davenport, IA, she was a talented artist as well as past president of the Women’s Auxiliary of the International Chiropractors Association. The couple, who married in 1944, has two sons.
The Browns supported and contributed generously to Sherman College in many ways over the years, including serving as Regents, making a generous estate commitment to the Endowment Trust, and setting up a charitable gift annuity with Sherman College as the beneficiary. Sherman College presented the couple with honorary Doctor of Chiropractic Humanities degrees in 2001, and they received the prestigious Thom and Betty Gelardi Service Award in 2013. The college named them Regents of the Year in 2018.
