John William Brown

John William Brown (December 28, 1913 – October 29, 1993)^[1] was a Republican politician from Ohio. He briefly served as the 58th Governor of Ohio from January 3, 1957 to January 14, 1957 and served as the 51st and 54th Lieutenant Governor of Ohio.

Brown also served as mayor of Medina, in the Ohio House, and in the Ohio Senate.

Lieutenant governor

John W. Brown is Ohio's longest serving Lieutenant Governor, having served under three different governors from 1953–1957 and 1963–1975. In 1952, he unseated the incumbent lieutenant governor, Democrat George D. Nye and took office as lieutenant governor in 1953. (At the time, the office of lieutenant governor was elected separately from the office of Governor of Ohio). Brown defeated Nye again in 1954 to win a second two-year term.

Governor of Ohio

In January 1957, during Brown's second term as lieutenant governor, Frank J. Lausche, the Democratic governor of Ohio, resigned in order to take a seat in the United States Senate, which he had won in the 1956 election. Brown, thus, was elevated to the office of governor. Lausche's successor, C. William O'Neill, had already been elected; however, at the time, the U.S. Senate term began on January 3, but the Ohio gubernatorial term did not end until the 14th.^[1]

Into the breach stepped the outgoing lieutenant governor. Brown took his eleven-day-long governorship very seriously. He moved into the governor's mansion, summoned the General Assembly to hear his state of the state address, demanded and received the governor's salary for the eleven days, and deposited five boxes of gubernatorial papers with the Ohio Historical Society.^[1] Among papers was a letter, on gubernatorial letter-head, to Columbus mayor, M. E. Sensenbrenner, asking him to take care of a parking ticket.^[1] There was also a letter to then President Eisenhower asking for a federal job after his eleven days in the governor's office were complete.^[1]

Later career

In 1958, Brown was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives, where he served from 1959–1960. He won election to the Lieutenant Governorship again in 1962, and served another three terms (by this time, the lieutenant governor's term had been extended to four years), from 1963–1975. In 1974, Brown lost his bid for another term to Richard F. Celeste.^[1]

After serving as lieutenant governor, Brown worked to reactivate, and became the first commandant, of the Ohio Naval Militia.

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Usher, Brian (2007), Lamis, Alexander P.; Usher, Brian, eds., Ohio Politics: Revised and Updated, Kent, Ohio: The Kent State University Press, pp. 65–67, ISBN 978-0-87338-613-5 

• http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=1830
• http://www.nndb.com/people/441/000167937/