Hank Brown

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American politician (born 1940)

title: "Hank Brown" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1940-births", "20th-century-members-of-the-colorado-general-assembly", "20th-century-united-states-representatives", "20th-century-united-states-senators", "george-washington-university-law-school-alumni", "living-people", "politicians-from-denver", "presidents-of-the-university-of-colorado-system", "republican-party-colorado-state-senators", "republican-party-united-states-representatives-from-colorado", "republican-party-united-states-senators-from-colorado", "united-states-navy-officers", "united-states-navy-personnel-of-the-vietnam-war", "university-of-colorado-law-school-alumni"] description: "American politician (born 1940)" topic_path: "law" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hank_Brown" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American politician (born 1940) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox officeholder"]

Field	Value
name	Hank Brown
image	HankBrown.jpg
office	21st President of the University of Colorado System
term_start	August 1, 2005
term_end	March 10, 2008
Acting: August 1, 2005 – May 2006
predecessor	Elizabeth Hoffman
successor	Bruce D. Benson
office1	President of the University of Northern Colorado
term_start1	July 1998
term_end1	June 2002
predecessor1	Howard Skinner (acting)
successor1	Kay Norton
jr/sr2	United States Senator
state2	Colorado
term_start2	January 3, 1991
term_end2	January 3, 1997
predecessor2	William L. Armstrong
successor2	Wayne Allard
state3	Colorado
district3
term_start3	January 3, 1981
term_end3	January 3, 1991
predecessor3	James Paul Johnson
successor3	Wayne Allard
state_senate4	Colorado
district4	29th
term_start4	January 3, 1973
term_end4	January 5, 1977
predecessor4	Ken Kinnie
successor4	Duane Woodard
birth_name	George Hanks Brown
birth_date
birth_place	Denver, Colorado, U.S.
party	Republican
education
branch	United States Navy
serviceyears	1962–1966
rank	Lieutenant
battles	Vietnam War
::

Education

Brown was born in Denver in 1940, and graduated from college in 1961 and from law school in 1969, both from the University of Colorado. Brown also has a Master of Laws degree from George Washington University. At the former, he became a member of Delta Tau Delta International Fraternity.

Career

Military

Brown served in the United States Navy from 1962 to 1966. He was an aviator and volunteered for service in Vietnam. He was decorated for his combat service as a forward air controller.

Politics

He served in the Colorado Senate from 1972 to 1976 and was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1980, serving until 1991. In 1990, he was elected to the United States Senate in which he served one term and did not run again in the 1996 election. From 1998 to 2002, he was president of the University of Northern Colorado. Brown and his wife, Nan, live in Denver.

In 1995, Brown was involved with the Airstan incident in which he mediated efforts for a prisoner exchange between Russia and the Taliban, which ultimately broke down, but his efforts set up an escape by the Russian prisoners.

CU President

In April 2005, Brown was named to succeed Elizabeth Hoffman as the president of the University of Colorado on an interim basis. Brown took office on August 1, 2005. Upon taking this role, he inherited a system weakened by sharply decreasing state appropriations, and scandals that included allegations of misuse of foundation funds, instances of sexual assault by members of the football team, waning public confidence, and sharp criticism in the state newspapers. He was later praised for the effective remedies he implemented for aggressively attacking these issues.

During his interim tenure, Brown also led the university through the controversy surrounding Ethnic Studies professor Ward Churchill. An investigation of Churchill for academic misconduct which had been supported by American Council of Trustees and Alumni, an organization that Brown had co-founded in 1995, identified seven separate instances of misconduct and referred the matter to the university administration. Brown urged the Board of Regents to dismiss Churchill, which it did in March 2006, overriding a tenure committee recommendation for one-year suspension. The decision was met with mixed opinion. Those in favor applauded the decision based on the findings of academic fraud, while those opposed believe the firing was simply a smokescreen to silence his views. In a July 2007 Wall Street Journal op-ed on the Churchill affair, Brown wrote: "Controversy -- especially self-sought controversy -- doesn't immunize a faculty member from adhering to professional standards."

In May 2006, the regents appointed Brown permanently. Later that year, he announced an initiative to add class rankings to student transcripts as a counterweight to grade inflation.

In 2007, CU set a fundraising record of $133 million, with some donors "credit[ing] Brown with restoring their confidence in the university." Brown tendered his resignation January 18, 2007 and left his post effective March 10, 2008.

Other positions

Brown is a member of the board of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, a non-profit organization which supports international elections.

Bibliography

Hank Brown, John B. Cooney, and Michael B. Poliakoff, 'Openness, Transparency, and Accountability: Fostering Public Trust in Higher Education', in The Politically Correct University: Problems, Scope, and Reforms, Robert Maranto (ed.), Richard E. Redding (ed.), Frederick M. Hess (ed.), Washington, D.C.: The AEI Press, 2009

References

Electoral history

References

The Rainbow, vol. 130, no. 2, p. 21
"Our Campaigns - CO Senate 29 Race - Nov 07, 1972".
Associated Press (August 19, 1996). "[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=2HMVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=NesDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6871,5168910&dq=russian+taliban+plane&hl=en Daredevil airmen receive warm homecoming]". The Register-Guard. Retrieved August 10, 2010.
Karin Fischer (November 11, 2015). "[http://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Rescuer/24872 The Rescuer]". [[The Chronicle of Higher Education]].
John Gravois (July 25, 2007). "[https://www.goacta.org/news/university_of_colorado_board_of_regents_fires_ward_churchill_who_vows_to_su University of Colorado Board of Regents Fires Ward Churchill, Who Vows to Sue]". [[American Council of Trustees and Alumni]].
American Council of Trustees and Alumni (July 24, 2007). "[[American Council of Trustees and Alumni. ACLU Wrong on Ward Churchill, ACTA Says]]."
Colorado Committee to Protect Faculty Rights. (2012). "[https://www.aaup.org/JAF3/report-termination-ward-churchill#.WSmKuGjyuUm Report on the Termination of Ward Churchill]" [[American Association of University Professors]].
Hank Brown (July 26, 2007). "[https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB118541244442278421 Why I Fired Professor Churchill]" [[The Wall Street Journal]].
[[The Chronicle of Higher Education]] (August 31, 2006). "[http://www.chronicle.com/article/Grade-Inflation-Tops-Hank/37505 Grade Inflation Tops Hank Brown's Agenda at U. of Colorado]".
Christine Tatum (January 7, 2008). "[http://www.denverpost.com/2008/01/07/hank-brown-citizen-of-the-west/ Hank Brown, Citizen of the West]." [[The Denver Post]].
Kerri Rebresh (January 18, 2007). "[http://www.coloradoindependent.com/1254/hank-brown-resigns-as-cu-president Hank Brown Resigns as CU President]". [[The Colorado Independent]].
(2009). "Board". IFES.
"1980 Election Results".
"1982 Election Results".
"1984 Election Results".
"1986 Election Results".
"1988 Election Results".
Leip, David. "1992 U.S. Senatorial General Election Results - Colorado". U.S. Election Atlas.

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