Brown, Ronald C.

Biography

Dr. Ronald C. Brown (1945—), a native Texan born in Brownwood who grew up in Indiana, joined the faculty at Southwest Texas State University in 1975.  He received his AB (1967) from Wabash College and his AM (1968) and PhD (1975) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Brown specializes in American history, with interests in the Old West, business, labor, technology, and oral history.  He has served as Director of the Honors Program (1980-1995), Dean of General Studies and then University College (1995-2010), and Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs with a student issue emphasis (2010-2017).  He returned to full-time teaching in the History department in 2018.

He is a member of Phi Alpha Theta, the American Historical Association, Organization of American Historians, Western History Association, and the Texas State Historical Association.  Among his other publications, he has written two university histories: Beacon on the Hill: Southwest Texas State University 1903-1978 and Up the Hill, Down the Years: A Century in the Life of the College in San Marcos, Southwest Texas State University 1899-1999.

History Department Oral Histories

Dr. Brown begins by recalling his first impressions of the university when he arrived in 1975, and then talks about his experiences and observations within the history department and the university in the years since. He talks about some of the faculty members he knew, their respective specialties and philosophies, how tenure decisions shaped the department, and some of the divisive issues within the department as well as issues between the department and the administration.