AUG 22, 1936 - JUN 9, 2024
W.L. Lyons Brown, Jr., 87, died peacefully in Gulf Stream, Florida on June 9, 2024. He was born on August 22, 1936 in Louisville, Kentucky to William Lee Lyons Brown, Sr. and Sara Shallenberger Brown. He lived a life of extraordinary service to his Country, his Company and his many Communities.
For his Country, he served as the American Ambassador to Austria, under George Bush, from 2001 through 2005. Ambassador Brown, was a member of the President’s Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations under President Reagan in 1988, President Bush in 1990 and President Clinton in 1994. He received the Chevalier de L’Ordre du Merit Agricole by the French Government in 1974 and was appointed an Honorary Consul of France in 1975 and served until 1990. He served in the Military as a First Lieutenant in the U. S. Army Reserves from 1964-1966.
For his Company, the Brown-Forman Corporation, he served in numerous leadership roles as a Director, President, CEO and Chairman of the Board between 1975 and 1996. Brown-Forman was founded by his great grandfather George Garvin Brown in 1870 and experienced unprecedented growth in revenue, geography and value under his leadership.
For his many Communities, Ambassador Brown undertook numerous philanthropic roles, which included Board Chairs of the World Monuments Fund, New York, NY; Winterthur Museum and Gardens, Wilmington, DE; the J. B. Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY and The American Business Conference, Washington, DC. He was President of the Alumni Association of the University of Virginia. He was a member of the Honorary Committee of the Spanish Riding School, Vienna, Austria; and Honorary Trustee of the American Austrian Foundation, New York, NY; a member of the Board of the Society of the Four Arts, Palm, Beach, FL and an Honorary Trustee of the Board of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY. He served on the Board of Directors of National City Corporation, Pennzoil-Quaker State Company, Westvaco Corporation, The France Growth Fund, First Kentucky National Corporation and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello. He was on the Trustees Council for the National Gallery of Art and he served on the Board of Visitors at the University of Virginia from 1987-1995.
Ambassador Brown graduated with distinction from the University of Virginia with a B.A. in History in 1958. He was a resident of The Lawn in his 4th year and a member of the Raven Society. In 1960 he graduated from the American Graduate School of International Management with a B.S. in Foreign Trade. He received the School’s Jonas Mayer Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1989.
He is survived by his wife of 65 years, Alice Cary Farmer, his sister, Ina Bond, his three children, Lyons III (Susanna), their three children, Renee Carpenter (Douglas), Caroline Fries (Willis) and George; Cary Epstein (Steven), their son Sam; Stuart (Joanna), their four children Stuart Jr., Keeling (Holly), Clara and Lyons and two great-grandsons, Read Lyons Fries and Cato Douglas Glover Carpenter III. He was loved and respected by all.
In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the Jefferson Scholars Foundation at the University of Virginia and direct them to the W. L. Lyons Brown, Jr. Scholarship
Arrangements under the direction of Pearson’s, “Where Louisville Goes to Remember”.
Comments