Griffin Speaks
RON BROWN
On
April 3, 1996, I was relaxing on my pontoon boat on Lake Martin when I
received a horrific phone call from my mother. My mother informed me that
the Air Force 737 carrying Ron Brown and 34 other people while on a trade
mission crashed in Croatia, killing everyone onboard. I immediately called
my best friend C. Howie Hodges to confirm the news.
Howie
the son-in law of the late Maynard Jackson had recently worked with Ron
Brown until his wife Elizabeth encouraged him that it was time to leave the
job. If she had not encouraged him to leave the Commerce Department Howie
would have been onboard that ill-fated flight. Among the persons killed on
the flight was a Spelman
Alumnus, Kathryn Hoffman. I had shared Christmas dinner with her parents at
Maynard Jackson’s home a few years earlier. Kathryn’s dad, Dr. Joe
Hoffman is a renowned surgeon in Atlanta, Georgia. I had another connection
with Secretary Brown in that his youngest sister, Leslie Brown a Spelman
College graduate married my Morehouse College SGA Vice President Greg
Franklin. Many people would come up to me and tell me that I resembled Ron Brown. One day
after church Mrs. Molly Reed came up to me and said, “I am amazed at how
much you remind me of Ron Brown.” I was always flattered and felt a great
connection to Ron Brown.
He
was the first African American to hold the office of U.S. Secretary of
Commerce; Secretary Brown was born in Washington, D.C. in 1941. He was
raised in New York. He attended Middlebury College in Vermont. He went on to
earn a law degree at night from St. John’s University while working as a
welfare caseworker for New York City. He served four years in the Army in
both Korea and Germany. He and his wife Alma Arrington, a full-time
professional lived in Washington, D.C. They had two children, Michael and
Tracey, both attorneys.
Secretary
Brown was on a trade mission to increase the economic benefits of peace to
the Balkans when the plane flew off course in bad weather and crashed into
the St. John’s Mountain near Dubrovnik, Croatia. Just barely a week
earlier the same plane had transported Hillary and Chelsea Clinton with some
of the same crewmembers that were killed.
Ron
Brown’s chairmanship of the Democratic National Party brought the party
back from its loss in 1988 and played a major role in uniting the party for
the 1992 election. President Bill Clinton credited Ron Brown with being
responsible for his winning the presidency. President Clinton delivered the
eulogy at Ron Brown’s funeral. He looked at Ron Brown’s casket and his
final words were: “Thank you; if it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be
here.”
Ron
Brown was by far the finest Secretary of Commerce that America has ever had.
My best friend, C. Howie Hodges had fond memories of his former friend and
boss. He said that: “Secretary Brown had worked diligently to increase
U.S. exports to emerging markets. Some of those markets included Indonesia,
South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, Turkey, and Poland. He totally revitalized
the Commerce Department, brought the bureaucracy into the 21st
century and used it to further our economic objectives and our larger
interests in the Balkans and Northern Ireland.” Howie loved the Secretary.
He said, “Secretary Ron Brown was the “Rock Star” of the Clinton
Administration.”
Greg
Griffin is a free lance writer. You can read his previous articles by
visiting his web page at www.greggriffin.com
