James Douglas Brown (1898-1986) served as Princeton’s seventh dean of the faculty from 1946 to 1967. An architect of the U.S. Social Security system, he was the University’s longest-serving dean of the faculty, and during his final year as dean, he also served as the University’s first provost.

Brown held three Princeton degrees, earning his bachelor’s degree in 1920, a master’s degree in 1921 and his doctorate in 1928.

Concurrent with his doctoral studies, Brown was appointed an instructor in economics in 1926. He quickly climbed the ranks, earning the title of assistant professor in 1927 and full professor in 1934.

In 1926, he was named the second director of Princeton’s Industrial Relations Section. Brown pioneered the development of the field of personnel and industrial relations, and he helped build an endowment of over $1 million for the section. He served as director from 1926 to 1955 and remained involved with the section until his retirement in 1967.

Brown’s many years of service to the federal government began in 1930, when U.S. President Herbert Hoover appointed him to an Emergency Committee for Employment to help fight the Great Depression. In 1934, he joined the Roosevelt administration as a member of a panel on economic security for the aged. During this time, Brown played a leading role in the creation of Social Security, which Congress enacted in 1935.

Two years later, Brown was appointed chairman of the first Federal Advisory Council on Social Security. Under his leadership, the council made proposals that led to revisions and extensions of the Social Security program. Brown served on four subsequent advisory councils and spent most of his professional career holding various roles as an economic consultant for government entities.

During Brown’s 21-year tenure as dean of the faculty, he took pride in Princeton’s commitment to teaching and scholarship. His office focused increasingly on faculty hiring, promotion, management and compensation. During his deanship, the full-time faculty increased from 435 to 658 and faculty salary expenditures increased fivefold.

Brown also was instrumental in establishing a liberal leave policy that allowed faculty time to research and write. He believed there was a “strong institutional interest in this: when a faculty member takes a leave and comes back with nothing, well, that suggests he’s not a creative scholar. Those fellows wear out, like a carpet does; whereas the creative person is self-renewing, like a good lawn.”

In 1973, the University presented Brown with an honorary degree. In the early 1980s, as part of the Campaign for Princeton, it developed a fund named for him, the J. Douglas Brown Dean’s Fund, “to provide special one-time grants to faculty when unexpected opportunities, situations, or needs arise.”

Written by Shane B. Black for the Office of the Dean of the Faculty, and Benjamin Bernard, who earned a Ph.D. in history from Princeton in 2022.