Henry Kinsey Brown

Valparaiso University President, 1919-1920

The eldest son of President Henry Baker and Geneva Brown, Henry Kinsey became president of Valparaiso University at the age of 28. In 1912, after his father suffered a stroke, Brown left a banking career in California to work at the University as treasurer. When he became president in 1919, he was forced to deal with steep declines in enrollment caused by World War I.

Brown’s first move as president was to restructure the University under the direction of a board of trustees made up of prominent Indiana, Chicago, and New York businessmen. Brown sought to use intercollegiate athletics as a means of increasing support for the University and also gave official status to fraternities and sororities, neither of which stemmed the University’s financial losses. Brown resigned in 1920, declaring, “I am not an educator.”