Edwin J. Brown

Edwin J. "Doc" Brown (1864–1941) was mayor of Seattle, elected in May, 1922, and again in 1924.

Biography

Edwin J. Brown graduated from Kansas City School of Law in 1899, and worked as a dentist, thus earning the moniker "Doc" Brown. As a politician during prohibition, Brown personally did not drink alcohol, but supported the public's right to drink.

During the decade of the 1910s, Brown was a leader of the moderate wing of Local Seattle of the Socialist Party of Washington, state affiliate of the Socialist Party of America.

When Brown left to attend the 1924 Democratic National Convention, he appointed city council member Bertha Knight Landes as acting mayor. Landes began her own law and order campaign, firing Police Chief William B. Severyns for corruption and closing down lotteries, punchboards and speakeasies. Upon his return, Brown reinstated the police chief. In 1926, Brown ran for a third term, but lost to Landes.

He died on July 28, 1941, at the age of 76, of a heart attack.