Personal Giving Stories
The Browns: A maize and blue family
 PHOTO: JOHN LACKO |
| Fritz, Susan Crumpacker Brown, and Bob Brown |
There is no shortage of Michigan families out there—generations of U-M alums who seem to share a gene giving them maize and blue blood. The extended family of Bob (BS EIE ’63) and Susan Crumpacker (AB ’63) Brown ranks with the most devoted.
The family patriarch was Bob’s late father, Regent Emeritus Robert Brown (AB ’26), captain of the football team and, from 1967–74, U-M Regent. Bob was also football captain—the Browns are the only father-son captains in Michigan football history. “Susan Brown,” says Bob, “has four or five generations of alumni,” especially from the Law School. Her grandfather, Frederick Charles Crumpacker, was the first president of The Michigan Union. And of their 25 nieces, nephews, and children, 16 have graduated from the University. “I think our own kids had the worst record, actually,” laughs Brown, of going off to other schools (Princeton and Colorado). Still, his daughter Catherine (AB ’98) is an alumna and son Fritz (AB ’90, MPP ’96) sits on the Advisory Committee of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. Susan adds, “We love to ask our eldest grandchildren—twins Spencer and Caroline—where they are going to college. If they say Michigan, they always get a treat, and if they get upset with us, they threaten to go to Berkeley.” The twins’ parents are Fritz and Marisa Toso Brown (JD ’96).
The elder Brown passed away in 1985. Before he died, he and his children pooled money from his estate and their own contributions to create the Monroe-Brown Foundation. “It’s his and his children’s legacy,” says Bob Brown. The funds are earmarked for education, specifically in the places closest to their hearts: U-M and their hometown of Kalamazoo.
At the U-M, the Browns have given time and money to
the business, engineering, medical, and public policy
schools, along with the art museum and the Athletics
Department. Bob is a Vice Chair of the Michigan Difference
campaign and a member of President Coleman’s
advisory group as well as the Health System Advisory
Board; Susan serves on the Ford School’s Advisory Committee
and on the art museum’s National Advisory
Board. The couple heads the Michigan Difference campaign
in Kalamazoo and hosts innumerable functions for
the University there.
In Kalamazoo, Bob founded the economic development group Southwest Michigan First, dedicated to improving and advancing the area’s economy, especially in hightech. An experienced business leader who has worked in venture capital and real estate, he believes passionately that U-M and the state can help each other. “The big hope for Michigan’s economy is through U-M,” he says.“It’s one of the top research universities in the country, and it has the capability to change the state’s economy.” He adds, “Mary Sue Coleman gets that.”
Armed with a belief that what’s good for the University can be good for the state, he says he is proud of his family’s legacy of giving their time and money to both. “You try to teach your children the idea they need to give back,” he says. “If you see something that needs to be done, you gotta start giving back.”
The Browns show no sign of stopping, either. Susan,
who “feels strongly that the University is the gem of the
state,” has decided to run for Regent, while their youngest
niece is enrolling at the U-M this fall, continuing the
family tradition.
Office of Planned Giving
University of Michigan Office of University Development
734-615-2022 • toll free 866-233-6661 • Contact Us
Disclaimer