MHF Brown's 141st Bithday Anniversary
Most Honorable Founder (MHF) Charles Ignatius Brown according to the 1914 Howard University yearbook, is documented as Finished Howard Academy, 1910; Class Chaplain, 1913; Chaplain Classical Club, 1912-1913; President Classical Club, 1914; Vice-President Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, 1914; will do post-graduate work in Latin. In addition, MHF Brown was chosen “The Most To Be Admired” for the Class of 1914. MHF Brown is said to have been born in Topeka, Kansas in 1890. Census records show that his father was Rev. John M. Brown and that his mother was Maggie M. Brown. However, records at Howard University from 1910 have MHF Brown living at 1813 Titan Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
He was very cordial and very popular with the student body and Howard University administration. He is credited with choosing the nine charter members of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity. MHF Brown founded the Delta Chapter of Phi Beta Sigma at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas, on April 9, 1917 and was a teacher at the Kansas Industrial School for Negroes in Topeka, Kansas.
In the 1914 Howard University yearbook, under the Personals and Applied Quotations section, MHF Brown left us with this, “No legacy is so rich as honesty”. MHF Brown graduated from Howard University on June 3, 1914. The last correspondence that the fraternity received from him was a letter to MHF Taylor in 1924, in which MHF Brown indicated that he was teaching in Kansas.
For more than 80 years, Sigma men pondered what may have happened with MHF Brown. It was hoped that he went on to live a productive and fruitful life – but the story of his disappearance, and speculation about what may have happened became folklore within the brotherhood. In 2015, a breakthrough occurred. A group of Sigma men ( Bros. Mark Pacich, Kevin Christian, Linden Houston, Todd LeBon, Victor Cox, Phil Eugenio, and Craig Arthur) were determine to find out what happened to MHF Brown, enlisted the help of professional researchers and with the full support of the Fraternity, were able to track MHF Brown to his final resting place. Indeed, he had kept his commitment to the cause of Sigma, living and serving his last years in a Catholic parish in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Most Honorable MHF Brown kept his promise to his Brothers in Sigma!
