Jeanne Brown first came to The University of Texas at Austin in 1966 as an assistant in the dean’s office at what was then known as the College of Business Administration. Her job eventually spanned two decades and three deans until she retired in 1988.

At 94 years old, Brown is still remembered for her dedication to the McCombs School of Business. And thanks to an award in her name, she’ll be known for generations to come. The Jeanne Brown Award, which was established in 1988 to recognize high-performing and dedicated longtime McCombs staff members, was the first UT endowment to specifically honor a staff member.

“Jeanne Brown was the glue that held the dean’s office together,” says William Cunningham, former dean of McCombs and current professor of marketing. “She was the first one in the office and the last one to leave.”

The Jeanne Brown Award, a $2,000 prize given annually, requires a McCombs dean’s nomination.

 

The Jeanne H. Brown Endowed Staff Excellence Award, which will be awarded to staff who have worked at McCombs for at least a decade, is sponsored by Brown’s children and grandchildren: daughter Barbara Brown Herman, BA ’68, and husband Morton Lee Herman, BBA ’65, of Fort Worth, and their sons Daniel Kyle Herman, BA/BBA ’97 of New York, and Lee Herman and wife Celina of Fort Worth, as well as Jeanne Brown’s daughter Judith Brown Nurre and her son Ted Nurre, both of Dallas. Brown’s daughter Barbara and grandson Kyle made the lead gift for this endowment.

“I wanted to give back to McCombs and was looking for a program or cause I was passionate about,” Kyle says. “At the same time, my mother was looking for a way to honor her mother’s legacy to the university. After speaking with the development team, we found that we could accomplish both goals by setting up an endowment to permanently fund the Jeanne Brown Award.”

“She is such a giving person and always puts everyone else first,” says daughter Barbara Herman.

“She was dedicated not only to UT but to the people she worked with for so many years. I would hope for her to be remembered as one of the people who has made UT so great.”

 Update March 2019: Jeanne Brown passed away in September of 2017.