William H. Brown; Parliamentarian of U.S. House for 20 Years
William Holmes Brown, 71, parliamentarian of the U.S. House of Representatives for 20 years until his retirement in 1994, died of a vascular ailment on Sunday at Loudoun Hospital Center in Loudoun County, Va.
Brown, who began as assistant parliamentarian in 1958, served under six speakers of the House as an advisor on procedure and practice. He also worked on behalf of the House on parliamentary development projects in Eastern Europe and Mozambique and participated in seminars in the United States for representatives of other national legislative bodies.
After his retirement, Brown worked for the Agency for International Development on a parliamentary development project in Ukraine.
A native of Huntington, W.Va., Brown was a graduate of Swarthmore College and the University of Chicago law school. He served in the Navy in the Middle East and the Mediterranean and remained in the Navy Reserve until 1974.
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