Thomas Rush Brown Jr. was one of Tucson, Arizona’s most successful businessmen. He was born in Memphis, Tennessee and raised in Longview, Texas. At the age of 12 he went to boarding school at Woodberry Forest, and later attended MIT and Harvard where he earned a general engineering degree and an MBA respectively. While at MIT, he served as the Grand Master of his chapter. He also served in the US Navy during World War II. After the war he married Helen Watson Mason and moved to Tucson, Arizona where he co-founded Burr Brown Research Corporation with Page Burr in 1956. He bought Burr’s interest in the company after a few years due to the high cost of operations (Burr was on Long Island and Brown was in Tucson) and continued to focus the rest of his career building the company they had started. In 1983 the company went public and in 2000, it was sold to Texas Instruments for $7.6 Billion in a stock for stock deal; this was the highest price paid for an Arizona company in state history.
Mr. Brown’s personality was marked by dedication and drive to do something of benefit to mankind. He saw a transistor on display at an electronics trade show in 1952 and was immediately impressed with the revolutionary potential the new technology offered. He and a friend from school launched a business based on products utilizing transistors and began manufacturing in his garage. He had a manufacturer’s enthusiasm for developing an excellent design, and then building many copies. His attention to detail was relentless and his methodology impeccable.
The Burr Brown employees were very important to Mr. Brown. He was always concerned that there should be an atmosphere of mutual respect and gain for the individuals who worked there as well as for the company. He developed the “Burr Brown Corporate Principles” and they were posted throughout the company and helped create not only a very efficient corporate culture, but also one where long term relationships were formed and thrived. These were as follows:
BBC Corporate Purpose
To provide something of value to mankind.
BBC Corporate Principles
- All of our activities should reflect our commitment to total customer satisfaction.
- People are, in general, intelligent, rational beings who want to be productive.
- In any exchange, value should be given in return for an equivalent value.
- An individual’s progress should be based on evaluation of the merit of the individual’s contribution.
- All persons should act in their own long-term self-interest.
- All activities must be conducted with integrity, honesty, and with respect for the dignity of everyone involved.
- Communications must be open, free and honest.
- Our prime responsibility to ourselves and to the community is to perform our jobs in a manner that assures a healthy, profitable company.
- Operate within the laws of all communities in which we do business.
He felt strongly about the virtues of free enterprise, and he sought to encourage individual liberty and fiscal conservatism. He was disenchanted with excessive taxation, regulation and government bureaucracy. He believed in the institution of private property and personal responsibility. He stressed the importance of forethought, personal initiative and effort, commitment and disciplined work. He espoused moderation in personal expenditures and acted accordingly himself. He supported achievement of individual goals and was a strong supporter of education and training to enhance the ability of an individual to reach their potential.
As a result of his strong beliefs, the Thomas R. Brown Family Foundation was created. The Thomas R. Brown Family Foundation advocates respect for the individual, self-reliance, integrity and responsibility. It supports programs, primarily in southern Arizona, which promote these qualities by helping people reach their potential and encouraging them to be productive members of the community. Th e mission of the Foundation is to support select charitable organizations and causes, primarily in southern Arizona, through direct grants and in conjunction with the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona. TRBFF gives preference to strategic grant proposals and avoids funding operating budgets. In addition, certain schools and hospitals particularly significant in the lives of Helen M. Brown and Thomas R. Brown have been supported.
Although Tom Brown’s life and work were based in Tucson, his vision was much broader. He thought in terms of mankind as a whole, and internationally. Central to everything he did was his belief that the welfare of society is advanced through personal initiative, individual self-sufficiency and responsibility, and the preservation of the free enterprise system.
His friends and family remember his wisdom, his wonderful sense of humor, and his strong commitment to the people and values he held dear.
