What it Means to be an American: The Irving Brown Story

Authored by Philip W. Travis

It was a beautiful spring day in Florida. The sky was blue on the quiet small roads of

Anna Maria Island. The temperature was a pleasant eighty degrees as I pulled my car into the driveway of a home overlooking the beach and the Gulf of Mexico. Jane saw me as I pulled in, she was taking the dog for a walk. “Just go on up he is expecting you,” she instructed me. I walked up the twenty or so steps to the front door and rang the bell. I greeted him as he invited me into the main room of their home. We walked down a short corridor. There were stairs and an elevator to my right as we entered a living room that looked out on the Gulf of Mexico. It was the kind of sight one sees in travel magazines about the dream location; a view of a tropical sea with waves crashing over a sandbar a few hundred yards out. We sat down at a large rectangular wooden table in a room with fine paintings adorning the walls. “We will stay 6 feet apart” he stated. This was the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic and he wished to follow the guidelines that the Centers for Disease Control had recommended to Americans. He exclaimed,

“Things are pretty bad for a lot of small businesses and families right now; restaurants are closed, and it will be very difficult on many of them. What I think I will do is, for the ones who need it,” he said earnestly, “I am just going to not worry about the rents until all this stuff passes.” This was Irving Brown and this first statement at a time of such need for so many was a microcosm of his personal philosophy of giving back to society. For Irving Brown, being an

American means using one’s personal success as an opportunity to contribute to the greater good of society, to give back. When it comes to being rich in America there exists an almost universal social debate:

Captains of Industry or Robber Barons? This question took hold during the Gilded Age; the height of the Industrial Revolution, particularly the late 19th century. It was a period of huge social inequities in which the masses lived in destitute poverty with little chance of education or advancement while a handful of individuals controlled powerful monopolistic trusts and made millions on the labor of poorly paid workers. This reality beckoned the question: were these huge corporate bosses Robber Barons that made their millions exploiting workers and pursuing their own self-interest at the expense of the people and of the country; or were these millionaires

Captains of Industry that led the country in a new age of innovation and production and that understood the importance of contributing to the greater good of society through philanthropy?

As such a dichotomous question suggests the answer is more likely neither or both. Throughout

American history, many wealthy individuals have done more than their part in contributing to the betterment of the United States while many others have not done enough to contribute to their society in philanthropic endeavors.

Where does Irving Brown stand in this debate on wealth and society? Operating the

Irving and Jane Brown Foundation, which provides millions of dollars of educational aid to college students in the United States and becoming the State College of Florida’s single most generous donor in the history of the college places Brown clearly in the camp of the Captains of

Industry. He used ingenuity and opportunity to find success, but was committed to using that success to make the United States a better place for those that make it their home. Why does

Irving Brown make giving back such a cornerstone of his citizenship? Simply put, Irving Brown is a product of his experiences. Brown’s life represents a rags to riches immigrant story and

Irving Brown’s business career represents the realization of the American Dream. His success, however, was built on a national and global community of support as well as his ingenuity.

Brown’s American Dream is not simply a story of a person that made hard choices and did it all by themselves as some like to imagine, but rather it is a success story of the global connectedness of the United States to the world and of the Jewish community. For these reasons, Brown’s story tells the reader a powerful lesson about America, immigration, the world, and society.

Irving Brown was born in Manchester, England on May 19, 1938. His father survived the

Dunkirk evacuation from France during the Nazi invasion of 1940. As a child Irving did not have a close relationship with his father who suffered from the stresses of combat. His mother, Sarah, was left to raise Irving on her own. Sarah worked her hands to the bone in a textile factory. It was hard work and the two had few comforts. Irving remembered his mother as a loving woman, but sadly, his memories are vague because adding to the tragedy of his father difficulties following his combat experience his mother died suddenly of heart attack in 1946; Irving was only 8 years old.

At the age of 8 Irving was left an orphan in working class England bleak postwar period.

Irving Brown was, however, Jewish and the Jewish people had a tight knit community. Brown considered himself fortunate to be in England at the time of the Holocaust on the European continent. However, even in England he experienced significant Anti-Semitism in the working- class English row-house neighborhoods that were separated along lines of class, race, ethnicity and religion. The Jewish community in England was strong and Irving’s local synagogue was able to place him in a comfortable and well-funded Jewish orphanage called Finnart House

School located to the Southeast of London in the small town of Weybridge Surrey. “Nobody should feel sorry for me [for being an orphan],” Irving Brown exclaimed, because Finnart House School was “a mansion” and “the pet charity of Lord Samuels…the first

Jewish member of the House of Lords.” As a result of Lord Samuels support Finnart House

School offered comfortable accommodations for an orphanage. The house was three stories high with four large chimneys and big windows adorning the front. At the time, the house was home to only 19 Jewish boys. Meals were cooked by three nice Irish girls and the food was good. It offered quite comfortable accommodations compared to what others might expect as wards of the state in Great Britain at the time, and for this reason Finnart House School remains a fond memory for Irving Brown’s difficult early years.

In 1949 Irving Brown’s Aunt, who lived in New York City and knew of Irving’s situation, sought to help her nephew out of this difficult situation. She went to the Hebrew

Immigration Society to see if they could help. After some discussion, the Hebrew Immigration

Society agreed to pay for Irving Brown’s passage to the United States and his Aunt sponsored him. Communication was sent to Finnart House and they agreed as well, and, so, Irving was taken to the American embassy. At the Embassy the immigration officer asked young Irving a simple question, “Why do you want to go to America?” Brown replied with a simple, but profound, answer, “Because of all the possibilities.” Brown’s answer spoke deeply to the promise that America offered to people throughout the world. The embassy booked his passage to the United States on the MV Georgic.

Irving Brown, only eight years old, was taken to the passenger ship the MV Georgic.

Irving starred, his mouth agape at the enormous ship. The vessel was a fairly large ship with two stacks and masts on the bow and stern of the ship. Though Irving was not aware of it at the time, the vessel was a troopship during the Second World War and was sunk and then rebuilt and returned to service. At the time of Irving’s voyage, the vessel was operated by British Ministry of

Transportation. Unknown to Brown at the time his voyage across the Atlantic was the first of an entire life of world travels and experiences. These global connections made Brown’s ultimate business success possible and shaped his outlook on the world, government, and philanthropy.

Brown’s ship took him to New York City. Unlike the stories of migrants coming into

Ellis Island half a century prior, Brown’s departure was rather straightforward, a walk down the plank and his uncle greeted him with his car to drive him into Brooklyn. Irving suffered from terrible car sickness and his uncle drove him an agonizing twenty-minute ride from the ship dock into Brooklyn. Upon his arrival he was greeted by Alan Maltzman, the son of a friend of his aunt

Sarah, and stumbling out of the car, sick from the ride, he met Alan and threw up all over him.

The two became life-long friends.

While a young student Brown found school boring and not always relevant. He got into trouble fairly frequently; nothing major, but the kinds of small scraps that one might expect of a young person bored with school in a big city. Brown recalled “I never had much use for mathematics and these other things. I just didn’t understand the point. History, though, I loved history. It made sense that the Battle of Hastings in 1066, for example, had played such a pivotal role in shaping modern England, but those other subjects, I really could of cared less.” Irving

Brown was not much for High School, but he had wit, common sense, and business savoy that would serve him as he searched for his calling.

In the Gilded Age of late 19th century industrialists like Andrew Carnegie made their start getting involved in manufacturing and mining; but by the 1950s and 1960s America was changing and the new economy of the United States centered on consumerism. Not to say that consumerism did not exist before the 1950s and 1960s, but with the economic boom associated with the United States’ ascension to global superpower in the decades following the Second

World War Americans had more money. Unions had helped solidify good pay for many of the working class, the federal government was funding education at an unprecedented rate and the stock market had finally climbed out of the long decent associated with the Great Depression. By the early 1960s Americans were consuming at an unprecedented rate. Americans were buying cars, fast food, televisions, and novelty items. While Andrew Carnegie, perhaps the United States most renowned philanthropist, capitalized on the manufacturing strength of America in the

Gilded Age, Irving Brown seized the opportunities presented by the rich consumer culture in the

United States in the 1950s and 1960s.

Brown’s predilection for business, however, did not come immediately and he did not begin with a large inherited sum of money. Instead, Brown went through a process of learning and developing connections that laid the foundations for success as he reached maturity.

Irving Brown’s successes were, initially, built on the increasingly globalized world of the

20th century. Shortly after High School, not looking to college, he went to work as a hand on board an Israeli shipping company named Zim Lines. Brown’s job did not pay him a great deal of money, but the global travels and experience were invaluable in both a personal and an economic sense. Brown’s vessel traveled the world and took him to the British Isles, West

Africa, Israel, and most significantly Hong Kong.

Hong Kong was a British possession that stretched back to the mid-1800s when the

British empire was at its zenith and its power was used to imperialize China in events like the

Opium Wars. Hong Kong developed as a Western influenced part of geographic China. While mainland China faced the tumult of Maoist communism and the terror of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, Hong Kong experienced relative prosperity and connectivity to the non-communist world that mainland China did not.

In life, success is built not only by the decisions and gifts of the individual, but also the chance circumstances and the decisions a person makes in given situations. Irving Brown’s greatest opportunities came at a point of seeming misfortune. While in Hong Kong in the late

1950s the ship experienced engine trouble and could not proceed until repaired. In most circumstances being broken down and stranded for a significant period with little money and in a far off and foreign land might seem anything but positive. However, little did Irving Brown know at the time, but this unexpected stay in Hong Kong was to be a critical moment for his future.

There was a small Jewish community in Hong Kong at the time, and Irving did what any young Jewish man with little money would do on a Friday night, he went to the local synagogue.

Hospitality is an important part of Jewish culture and at the synagogue one might meet someone that would take them to their home, give them dinner and so forth. At the synagogue he met a man named Mr. Hermann. Mr. Hermann was a Russian Jew. He made it out of Russia before the

Nazi invasion during the Second World War; escaping the terror of the Holocaust. Mr. Hermann lived in Hong Kong with his Chinese wife and their family. Irving was stuck in Hong Kong for six weeks and while he stayed at the YMCA Mr. Hermann had him over to his home regularly and also to his factory where he showed him around in what was the first real exposure to successful large scale business. Mr. Hermann was in the plastic extrusion business and had a factory of maybe fifty people that made various items of plastic. Irving explored and asked inquiring questions. Brown was always a person interested in learning how things worked; he was intrigued by Mr. Hermann’s successful business. Over those six weeks, Mr. Hermann gave young Irving many pieces of advice and the two created a relationship that was critical in Irving

Brown’s future and signified the importance of global connections and community to business success in the modern age.

Irving’s rise to economic success, however, was not immediate or seemingly even likely after he returned from Hong Kong. Brown had little money to speak of and received a letter from the United States Army. It was 1958 and Irving just received his draft letter.

In the 1950s the United States had a peace-time draft. It was the height of the Cold War and events like the Berlin Blockade/Airlift of 1948, the fall of China to the Maoist communists, the Korean War, the Soviet detonation of an atomic bomb and the fear of espionage around every corner in the United States resulted in an American national defense policy that called for preparation for the possibility of another world war. This preparation meant massive military expenditures, a standing army of over 1 million and the creation of a new national security state centered around the newly created Defense Department and global alliances like the North

Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The United States was at a height of nationalistic strength and part of this meant drafting Americans into peacetime military service. Such service famously included even individuals like Elvis Presley.

Irving Brown received his draft notification and he took it seriously. Shortly after receiving the draft notice he reported to Basic Training at Fort Dix in New Jersey. Brown’s time in the United States Army was memorable, but for all the wrong reasons. He was sent to

Anchorage, Alaska and served under a Sargent from Mississippi. Brown recalled, “I have nothing against anyone from Mississippi and I think there are fine people there and everywhere, but this particular individual was not one of them.” One thing that Irving Brown remembers so fondly about the United States was that it was a welcoming country, it had its problems, but the

American Dream was an idea that anyone could come and seek success in the United States.

Brown experienced Anti-Semitism while in the United Kingdom, but the United States was different, that is until his experience with his Sargent in the United States Army.

Brown was right, the American Dream and the promise of the United States was built on the pledge that anyone may come and have an opportunity to succeed. However, while this was the ideal, the reality was that the United States was a country with a long history of struggles against xenophobic racism and so-called nativists that believed that the United States was somehow a country only for White Anglo-Saxon Protestants. Throughout the country’s history individuals of different ethnicities, races, and cultural/religious heritage faced significant discrimination and obstacles to the American Dream. Perhaps the greatest struggle of American history was the reconstructing of the racist ideas that were incorporated into the country’s founding and development. Brown was fortunate to have not yet experienced such hostilities in his younger years in the greater New York City area, but that was all about to change.

As we spoke in 2020 at his Anna Maria Island home Irving Brown leaned back in his chair, an old tattoo of a dancing lady adorning his right arm, and exclaimed, “This Sargent was real asshole, and one day when I requested some time off for the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur everything came to a head.” His captain refused him leave to go to his synagogue and grabbed him by the shirt collar and started a series of Anti-Semitic slurs directed at Irving. Brown, infuriated, lost it. He grabbed a wooden chair and in a fit of rage smashed it over the head of the

Sargent. The Mississippi Sargent lay on the floor, he thought he had killed him, and so he fled from an incident that he understood was wrong, but simultaneously knew the overt racism of his superior made it seem all the more justified.

For the next several months, Brown hitchhiked his way across the country. He had little money and the precarious nature of life appeared tipping more toward catastrophe than success.

Brown stayed with friends and pen pals in places like Seattle, Charleston, and Toronto. While in

Toronto he called his Aunt in Brooklyn. “You know the MPs were here looking for you,” his

Aunt exclaimed on the telephone. Irving’s heart skipped a beat as his mind wandered and he imagined “Oh my God, is the Sargent dead, did I kill him, will I be a fugitive from justice and spend years in prison?” After a moment, Irving replied to his Aunt, “What did the MPs say I did?” She responded, “They said you hit your superior officer and ran off. The man recovered just fine, but they are looking for you.” With that Irving felt much better; at least he wasn’t to be brought up on murder charges. Irving hung up the phone and thought to himself, “I can’t go through life like this, hitchhiking, staying at friends, having no money.” He decided that he would turn himself in. Decidedly, Irving Brown hitchhiked his way to Fort Dix, New Jersey. He was court martialed and sent to Fort Knox, Kentucky. After several months in the stockade

Irving, refused to return to his old base for fear of retribution from the racist Mississippi Sargent and with some wrangling received a discharge from the United States Army. After his discharge

Irving Brown felt relieved on the one hand because he would not have to return to face the vitriolic Mississippi racist in Anchorage, Alaska, but on the other hand he felt as though he were at the low point of his life.

Once he was back in New York Brown began searching for a job and a career. Brown knew he was a good salesman. So, he went to Macy’s, but quickly realized that his early discharge basically meant he could not work for anyone. At this point many might fall deeper into despair, but Irving used his ingenuity and business savoy to create a future out of a bleak present.

What saved Irving Brown at a time in which many might have otherwise fallen deeper into despair was an understanding of himself. Brown had an acumen for business, identifying opportunity, he sought answers, and he was driven. These characteristics helped him find a way out of an otherwise bleak situation.

Brown understood that making money in America in the burgeoning consumer and capitalist world of the 1950s and 1960s meant finding something that could be sold in quantity that wasn’t perishable and could become something of a consumer trend. He spent time in and around the local New York flea markets; he was watching, working, and evaluating how things were done. Back then the New York flea markets purchased goods from importers on 23rd street.

The importers marked the goods up and then the seller marked the goods up again. Brown opened his own flea market stand on a 400$ loan from his sister and soon he was operating nearly a dozen flea market stands in New York City and was making pretty good money.

Irving Brown was doing fairly well for himself selling novelties out of flea market stands, but he still was only selling one at a time and, well, he was never going to make a lot of money selling novelties out of flea market booths. Brown needed to find an item that was popular and that he could sell in bulk. He contacted his friend in Hong Kong, Mr. Hermann, the man that had taught him so much about the plastic extrusion business and had taken him into his home. Irving hadn’t spoken to him in a couple of years, but knew that he was in the novelty business and so he called Mr. Hermann and asked if he had anything that he might be able to sell in the United

States. As chance had it, Brown’s Hong Kong connection, Mr. Hermann, told him “I’ve got this great item!”; it was a small plastic daisy each with a little grin and eyes and a nose. He said,

“Irving these might be something that you can sell in the States.” Brown replied “can you ship me a couple of cases of them? I will pay you for them.” As a testament to the importance of global connections, of community, and of giving Mr. Herman replied, “I will ship you two cases, don’t worry about paying me for them.” With this generosity, Mr. Hermann and Irving Brown established a global business connection that built the foundation of an American dream come true.

Brown received the novelty daisies and he understood that he could go around the New

York flea markets and sell these individually, but that this was no way to really make money.

The problem that Irving understood was that the only way to really make money was to move volume; a case here and a case there was not going to make anyone much money long term. He needed to find a way to get a bulk shipment of these Hong Kong novelty flowers and then a major retailor to sell in large numbers.

In the 1950s and 1960s the big retailor in the United States was Woolworths. There was no Walmart. Woolworths was it and it owned all kinds of name brands and it sold a wide variety of items across the United States. Brown surmised that maybe he could go over to New Jersey and see if Woolworths might sell his Hong Kong novelty daisies.

Brown put his only suit on and went to a New Jersey Woolworths to the office of the purchasing agent. “May I help you?” Exclaimed the secretary. Irving, only 23 years old, replied to the lady at the desk “look, I don’t have an appointment, but I need to speak with your boss. I will wait here for eight hours or as long as it takes and when he comes out just tell him I have been waiting all this time and if he won’t see me, well then fine, I will make an appointment.” The secretary nodded, “have a seat over there.” Over the next several hours the two talked. She was a Jewish girl and speaking to his humble beginnings Irving regarded her as rich. Eventually, her boss emerged from his office. “Excuse me sir” his secretary spoke “this is Mr. Brown, and he has been waiting here to speak with you.” The man looked Brown over, rubbed his chin. “You got three minutes” he exclaimed, and Irving had his chance to make the pitch.

Three minutes passed and the man spoke, “I like this item, do you have more of them?”

Brown replied, “Yes, sir, I have twenty-four of these in my car.” The man replied “look I’d like to test these out in one of our stores here in New Jersey, so, go ahead and take these over there and we will set it up and see how your product does.”

Once Irving’s plastic daisies were all in that New Jersey Woolworths he called all of his friends and everyone went and bought a flower, the product sold out, and it was time for another meeting! Yet again, in a small way, friends, community and support mattered.

` Clearly, Woolworths was very interested in Irving Brown’s product and on the next meeting the sales officer said, “I’d like to put these in a few of our regional stores, can you get more of them?” Irving replied. “Yes, but I don’t have them here, I need to have them shipped.”

The man said “okay” and he handed him an order. It was an order for 1 million dollars in plastic daisies from Hong Kong.

Brown left the Woolworths feeling incredible, but also a bit apprehensive. He had a million dollar order, but how was he supposed to pay for an order of that size? He barely had any money at all let alone enough to get all those novelty flowers on board a ship and out to the

United States from Hong Kong. Brown had a dilemma on his hands. The solution to getting the money for a shipment of a million dollar order of daisies for the biggest realtor in the United States was fairly simple, though, Irving didn’t know it at the time, after all, he was only twenty three and was learning the world of business through experience. Brown went to Chemical Bank to ask for the money, and they directed him to

Paramount Factors, which dealt in arrangements such as this. Paramount Factors paid and arranged for the shipping. When the shipment arrived Woolworths paid Irving and Paramount

Factors took its fee. Most significantly, Irving Brown was twenty-three years old with one million dollars in his pocket in 1961.

For the next nearly two decades Brown made his business on novelties. Eventually, by the early 1980s he shifted with the times again and further expanded his wealth and success in property ownership and real estate, particularly in the ownership of commercial properties from strip malls, to warehouses, and chain restaurants like Dunkin Donuts. Irving Brown didn’t like to be involved in residential property ownership, though, because he wanted to help people and couldn’t bring himself to pursue things like evictions, which could hurt hard working everyday people; Irving Brown had a philanthropic spirit and he wanted to help people.

Irving Brown’s life has many fascinating twists and turns as one might expect. In one case Brown, a fan of soccer, even sought to become a significant shareholder in the English

Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur, which played in London. However, when he bought a substantial amount of stock in the team the owners became nervous that he was going to take control of the organization. Irving’s purchase of shares in the soccer club led to a feud between

Brown and the team’s lawyers and even resulted in a newspaper photo in the London Times of

Brown locked out of the London club’s facility before a game. Brown’s life was a full one and one with many great successes and experiences that provide numerous lessons for young people today.

Throughout Brown’s life, and career, he crafted his own outlook on business, life, politics and society. In business, he was practical, honest, and not showy or one to flaunt his success. His tendency toward this was reaffirmed by an experience with his first partner. After establishing himself in the novelty business Brown became friends with the inventor of pantyhose. The two developed a friendship. Brown was introduced to his son, and Irving and the son went partners.

The son’s side of the partnership involved controlling warehouses and storage facilities for the novelty items that were sold throughout the country. This partnership Brown regretted, not because he lost a lot of money, but because it brought him into association with an unscrupulous individual that flaunted wealth, would lie, and do anything to benefit himself. Brown recalled a moment in which his partner called him on the phone, “He was in Malibu, had married an actress, been on the television program The Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous and he called me up in the morning eating and drinking the most expensive food and drink imaginable and lounging by the pool, and well I almost lost it.” Brown continued, “Every school should teach ethics to business majors” Irving Brown believes that the United States today has a serious problem with business people that are irresponsible, corrupt, and generally unethically, and this is something that goes straight up to the world of politics in the United States. In Brown’s view the purpose of business is not simply personal gratification, but it is something that has the power to improve the quality of life of people by giving them jobs and providing valuable services and opportunities. Brown insists that the job of business is to make the world a better place. It is not as though business shouldn’t make one rich and reward people for hard work and innovation, but businesspeople should be fair and have a penchant for improving society not simply taking for oneself personally. Brown’s early colleague was one of these later individuals and it was an important step on the way to Brown realizing his potential as both a businessman and a philanthropist.

Irving Brown lived an American success story: an orphan and immigrant, with no inherited wealth to speak of that developed an acumen for business, took the opportunities that arose, and benefited from the goodwill of others. Brown’s experiences have shaped his perspective on the United States today and he has some poignant points about a number of significant social arguments. Brown, a Jewish-American, owed a certain degree of his success to the connections of the Jewish community that held close familial bonds and opened doors from the orphanage, to his immigration and to Mr. Hermann in Hong Kong. Today, in American society there are many of great wealth that might do more for the greater good of society, but choose not to out of a belief that the country is about individual self-interest as opposed to contributing to the greater good of society. On the matter of taxation Brown responds to those that clamor for lower and lower taxes simply, “I don’t need a tax cut, I (and wealthy Americans in general) am doing just fine.” Brown does not support recent tax cuts for the wealthy because he believes taxes may be used to give back and to make the United States a better place. Brown fears philanthropy is becoming less common as individuals adopt self-focused perspectives and refuse to contribute to the building of a better world. Brown has become the single most generous donor in the history of the State College of Florida, which is just one of his charitable acts. This philanthropy is because Irving and his wife Jane believe in giving back to society and giving people the opportunity to build a better future and a better world. The responsibility of success, for Brown, is a duty to help others open the doors of opportunity just as Mr. Hermann helped to open a door for him. Community mindedness, understanding the greater good of society, and using philanthropy to contribute to building a country that is more prosperous to more people is the responsibility of all Americans. This is the first ingredient to making and keeping America great.

The second factor in making and keeping America great is immigration. In recent years immigration has turned into a polarizing and hot button political issue that has witnessed the emergence of vocal xenophobic-nativist rhetoric that harkens back to extreme nationalist and isolationist tendencies of the United States in the 1920s and 1930s. To these voices Brown says simply “let the immigrants come. The overwhelmingly majority are only coming here because they want the opportunity to work and have a better life, so let them come.” An immigrant himself, Brown understands the opportunity that America offers to people, and that immigrants contributed invaluably to the success of the nation through hard work, passion, and innovation.

This is what America is built on, poor immigrants like Andrew Carnegie and Irving Brown coming to the country and using hard work and innovation to achieve success and eventually contribute to the betterment of the country. “Why turn people away” laments Brown. The greatness of the United States is built on immigration, but throughout the history of the country fear and racism have sometimes resulted in political movements that fail to see the fundamental role of immigration to the greatness of the country.

Irving Brown’s life demonstrates the American Dream. Despite those in the polarized 21st century that wish to suggest that America should close its doors to immigrants, that it should somehow be an isolationist nation, and that individuals should fend only for themselves and their immediate self-interest, the reality is that the United States’ position as a global conduit for immigration, commerce, trade, innovation and the philanthropy that have stemmed from this are the factors that make the United States a great country. Brown insists that, “The United States is still the best country in the world.” The country’s resources, arable land, and democratic institutions created the lure of opportunity that made it a central intersection for the world.

America is great because of the global interconnections that made it possible for a poor orphan from war torn Great Britain to come to the United States, to make mistakes, but to also capitalize on opportunity that made personal success possible, and through this to provide resources to young people in the 21st century through a generous philanthropic spirit and giving to colleges like the State College of Florida that may help to keep the promise of the American Dream alive for generations to come.

After my final meeting with Irving Brown at his home on Anna Maria Island I said goodbye as I walked out the door and down the twenty or so steps to my car. Driving away along the palm tree lined road I felt I knew Irving Brown and that his perspective on the world, his story, is one that should be told. It is a story of an immigrant that knows what it is like to be on hard times, but also what it is like to find the American Dream. It is a story of the importance of community to creating opportunities for others. The American Dream is only possible if society supports the institutions that provide opportunities for individuals. It is a story about connections, and how global connections create opportunities and can enrich a person’s life. Irving Brown is compassionate to his fellow citizens and believes in contributing to the greater good of society.

Living in a time of such self-absorption and individual aggrandizement Irving Brown deeply believes in contributing to the common good. For this reason, Irving Brown stands as a Captain of Industry, a leader in philanthropy, and an example of the duty of citizenship for the United

States’ most successful. Irving Brown symbolizes what it means to be American.