Louis Brownlow

Louis Brownlow (August 29, 1879 – September 27, 1963) was an American author, political scientist, and consultant in the area of public administration. As chairman of the Committee on Administrative Management (better known as the Brownlow Committee) in 1937, he co-authored a report which led to passage of the Reorganization Act of 1939 and the creation of the Executive Office of the President. While chairing the Committee on Administrative Management, Brownlow called several of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's advisors men with "a passion for anonymity"—which later became a popular phrase.

Early life and career Louis Brownlow was born in Buffalo, Missouri, in August 1879. Louis was frequently ill as a child and educated at home The couple had no children. He caught the attention of President Woodrow Wilson in 1914 after being one of the few newspaper reporters to correctly predict that the German Empire would go to war with Serbia over the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand (which caused the start of World War I). From 1917 to 1920, he was president of the commissioners and a vocal proponent of home rule. He helped guide the city through the 1918 flu pandemic, closing schools and businesses and banning all public gatherings. He also served on the District of Columbia Public Utilities Commission and the District Zoning Commission from 1917 to 1919.

Brownlow began teaching political science at the University of Chicago in 1931, and later that year was appointed director of the Public Administration Clearing House (which he had helped organize in 1930) at the university. He remained the Clearing House's director until 1945. Brownlow became chairman of the Committee for Public Administration of the Social Science Research Council in 1933, where he worked to bridge the gap between academics and practitioners. The three-person committee consisted of Louis Brownlow, Charles Merriam, and Luther Gulick.

On January 10, 1937, the Committee released its report. the Committee's report advocated a strong chief executive, including among its 37 recommendations significant expansion of the presidential staff, integration of managerial agencies into a single presidential office, expansion of the merit system, integration of all independent agencies into existing Cabinet departments, and modernization of federal accounting and financial practices. While he was a member of the Committee on Administrative Management, Brownlow was named an official delegate to the Sixth International Congress of Administrative Sciences in Warsaw, Poland.

Post-Brownlow Committee Brownlow helped co-found the American Society for Public Administration in 1940, serving in various executive and advisory capacities to it until 1945. Brownlow was also director of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial Foundation in 1947, and director of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation from 1948 to 1953.

Death Louis Brownlow died in Arlington, Virginia, in September 1963 after delivering a speech at the Army Navy Country Club. A memorial service was held at St. Thomas Episcopal Church.

Honors named for Brownlow Since 1968, the National Academy of Public Administration has recognized outstanding contributions to the literature of public administration through presentation of the Louis Brownlow Book Award. The award is given to a book published in the previous two years which has made an exceptional contribution to the study of governmental institutions or public administration problems.

The American Society for Public Administration also bestows its Louis Brownlow Award on the best article written by a public administrator to appear in the journal Public Administration Review in the past year.

Publications The President and the Presidency. Chicago: Public Administration Service, 1949. A Passion for Politics: The Autobiography of Louis Brownlow: First Half. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1955. A Passion for Anonymity: The Autobiography of Louis Brownlow: Second Half. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958. The Anatomy of the Anecdote. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960.