Oklahoma native Fred E. Brown, Jr., graduated Central Senior High School in Muskogee with academic and leadership honors and spent one year in Muskogee Junior College before graduating in 1934 with a B.S. from the University of Oklahoma. After receiving his Master’s Degree at Harvard in 1936, he moved to New York City where he started as a trainee securities analyst for one of the organizations managed by the Seligman Group. Resuming his business career after four years of Army service, Brown was the youngest partner in the Seligman Group in 1955 and by 1967 he was managing the firm. Eventually, he became chairman and chief executive officer. In 1982, he established a $750,000 endowment to support a professional chair in finance in the College of Business Administration at OU. He served on such boards as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the Five Civilized Tribes Museum in Muskogee.