Temple Brown, dairy executive, former Rex

By John Pope

B. Temple Brown Jr., the former leader of the local dairy bearing his family's name, died Friday of complications from diabetes at St. Tammany Parish Hospital in Covington. He was 75.

Temple Brown, Phi '54

Mr. Brown, who reigned as Rex, king of Carnival, had lived in St. Tammany Parish for seven years.

A native New Orleanian who graduated from Yale University, Mr. Brown served in the Air Force during the Korean War, flying fighter jets.

After his discharge, he went to work for Brown's Velvet Dairy Products Inc., which his grandfather Benjamin C. Brown founded in 1905.

Starting as vice president, Mr. Brown became co-executive vice president and, in the mid-1970s, president and chief executive officer, said his son, Crichton W. Brown.

In 2000, the company was sold to Southern Food Group Holdings, now Dean Foods. Brown's Velvet became Brown's Dairy, with "Smooth As Velvet" as a slogan.

Besides being an executive, Mr. Brown was on the boards of the Metropolitan Area Committee and the Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital, and he was chairman of Loyola University's Board of Trustees.

He also worked to improve the Central City neighborhood around the company's plant at 1300 Baronne St., said John Charbonnet, a friend.

"He did an awful lot of quiet funding," Charbonnet said. "Temple helped finance a lot of improvements in that neighborhood, and he helped finance a clinic."

An avid sailor since his youth, Mr. Brown crossed the Gulf of Mexico several times, and he sailed in the Atlantic Ocean in the Southern Ocean Racing Circuit, Charbonnet said.

Mr. Brown was a former commodore of the Southern Yacht Club.

Working with Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who founded the Special Olympics, Mr. Brown organized sailing activities for the games, his son said. He also was a sailing coach and board member.

In the fall of 1991, he was picked to reign as Rex. Six weeks later, the New Orleans City Council passed a law designed to force the desegregation of parading Carnival krewes, touching off arguments throughout the city about the future of the city's signature celebration.

Two old-line krewes, Momus and Comus, decided not to take to the streets in 1992, and there was some debate about what Rex would do. Mr. Brown said at the time that he felt fate was conspiring to ruin his day of glory.

Brother Brown (center) at the DKE International Convention in 2006 in New Orleans. He is seen at the banquet talking with Warren Bofinger '67, Zeta Zeta / LSU. On his left is his Phi / Yale pledge brother and former roommate, Edmund Thornton '54.

"We didn't know whether we were going to ride or not," he said in a 1992 interview. "It was sort of a seesaw -- up one day, down the next. You'd think that progress was being made, then something else would happen.

Finally, the organization made up its mind that it was going to ride. I do think it had to. Our motto is 'pro bono publico' (for the public good), and we have to live up to that."

Survivors include his wife, Penny Brown; his son, Crichton Brown; a daughter, Adair Brown; a sister, Patricia B. Waters; and four grandchildren.

A Mass will be said Monday at noon at St. Benedict Catholic Church, 20370 Smith Road, Covington. Visitation will begin at 10:30 a.m.

Burial will be in St. Joseph Abbey.

Schoen Funeral Home of Covington is in charge of arrangements.