G. Thompson Brown

G. Thompson "Tommy" Brown (April 30, 1921 - January 21, 2014) was the Professor Emeritus of World Christianity at Columbia Theological Seminary, a missionary, author, and the Director of the Division of International Mission for the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS). He spent much of his life in Korea focusing on strengthening the Presbyterian Church there. His daughter is Mary Brown Bullock, who was President of Agnes Scott College and a foundation executive in developing exchange with China.

Education G. Thompson Brown (1921-2014) was born in Guling, (now Lushan) Jiangxi province, China. His parents, Frank A. Brown and Charlotte Thompson Brown, were both Presbyterian missionaries, so he attended school and grew up in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, China until he graduated high school. He then moved back to the United States and attended Davidson College, where he graduated with a BA in 1942. After a brief time in the army, he then attended Union Theological Seminary, where he earned a BD in 1949 and a Th.D. in 1963. In 1950 he also earned a Th.M. from Princeton Seminary. Later in 2012 he was awarded an honorary doctorate degree from Honam Theological Seminary, the school he helped create.

Life After Brown graduated from Davidson College, he served in World War II as a U.S. Army Signal Corps officer until the end of the war.

Brown was married to Mary (Mardia) Alexander Hopper for 70 years. They met while attending Pyeng Yang Foreign School, a now defunct mission school in Pyongyang, Korea.

Works Christianity in the People's Republic of China (John Knox Press, 1983) Mission to Korea (and Korean Translation, Presbyterian Church of Korea, 1984) Presbyterians in World Mission (CTS Press, 1995) Earthen Vessels and Transcendent Power: American Presbyterians in China, 1837-1952 (Orbis Books, 1997) Face to Face: Meditations on the Life Everlasting (Geneva Press, 2001) How Koreans are Reconverting the West (Xlibris Corporation, 2008 and Korean Translation, 2009)