WASHINGTON — Earle Palmer Brown, who founded the Washington-area advertising and public relations agency that bore his name and who became an industry powerhouse during five decades in business, died Oct. 1 at his home in Potomac, Maryland. He was 92.
The cause was cardiac arrest, according to his wife, Joyce Baker Brown.
Brown opened the Earle Palmer Brown firm in Washington in 1952 and led its operation for nearly a quarter-century before his son Jeremy “Jeb” Brown succeeded him as chief executive in 1976. At that time, the firm reportedly brought in annual billings of $3 million. By the early 1990s, they had risen to more than $400 million.
With headquarters later located in Bethesda, Maryland, the company opened offices around the country and regularly collected advertising awards for its work on behalf of a roster of clients that included the airline then known as USAir, Turner Broadcasting, the Virginia Lottery, the Roy Rogers restaurant chain and, for a period, The Washington Post.
In the 1990s, the agency began losing clients, a reversal attributed to aggressive expansion efforts, personnel turnover and changing industry trends. In the early 2000s, with business continuing to suffer, the agency’s parent company sold or closed the firm’s remaining offices.
Earle Palmer Brown was born March 15, 1922, in New York City and grew up on Long Island. He received a bachelor’s degree in journalism in 1944 from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, and served in the Navy during World War II as a PT boat commander in the Pacific. His decorations included the Bronze Star.
Before beginning his advertising career, Palmer worked in the Navy’s public information office and in journalism, including as a reporter in Richmond, Virginia, and as an editor of an architectural publication. Years later, he wrote book reviews for The Washington Post.
As a member of the University System of Maryland Board of Regents, Brown was credited with playing a leading role in the opening of the Universities at Shady Grove in Rockville, Maryland. He was chairman or president of professional and social organizations, including the Maryland Chamber of Commerce, the Congressional Country Club in Bethesda and the Harness Tracks of America.
An Eagle Scout, he also was a past chairman of the National Capital Area Council of the Boy Scouts, his wife said. He received numerous civic and professional honors.
His first marriage, to Barbara MacLaughlin Brown, ended in divorce. Their daughter, Andrea Brown Wrightson, died in 1992.
Survivors include his wife of 30 years, Joyce Baker Brown of Potomac; five children from his first marriage, Jeb Brown of Chevy Chase, Maryland, Scott Brown of Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, Alison Brown Ford and Meredith Asbury, both of Potomac, and Jill Plummer of Shippenville, Pennsylvania.; 21 grandchildren; and 14 great-grandchildren.