Brown, Edmund Gerald (1905-1996), was governor of California from 1959 to 1967. He was known as Pat. He got his nickname from a schoolboy speech in which he quoted the words attributed to Patrick Henry: “Give me liberty or give me death.” His son, Edmund G. “Jerry” Brown, Jr., was governor of California from 1975 to 1983. The younger Brown was elected governor again in 2010.
Pat Brown was born on April 21, 1905, in San Francisco. He earned a law degree from San Francisco College of Law in 1927 and began to practice law. From 1943 to 1950, Brown served as district attorney for San Francisco. A Democrat, he was elected California’s attorney general in 1950 and 1954. He was elected governor in 1958 and reelected in 1962. As governor, he led the fight for approval of a statewide water project. Brown also supported expansion of California’s higher education system. He died on Feb. 16, 1996.
