Dr. Frank Markham Brown

Dr. Frank Markham Brown, Professor Emeritus at the Air Force Institute of Technology, died at Broad Creek Care Center on Monday, March 10, 2025. He was 94 years old.

Frank was born in 1930 in San Diego, California, the son of Mary Ann and Thomas M. Brown (Rear Admiral, USN). After the usual travels of a Navy junior, including four years in China, he left high school as a junior and enlisted in the Navy. As a petty officer he competed successfully for both a Fleet appointment and a Presidential appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy, standing first among the Presidential candidates.  He graduated with distinction in 1953 and was commissioned in the U. S. Air Force.

At a tea-dance in Annapolis, he met Roberta Stickel, of Glen Rock, NJ. They were married in 1957.

His studies at the Academy awakened a strong interest in mathematics and science; consequently, his career, both military and civilian, was devoted to research and teaching. He received the M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) at Wright-Patter son Air Force Base, in Dayton, Ohio, and the Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the Ohio State University. His Air Force assignments included instructing electronics at Keesler and Lowry AF Bases, a tour in an R&D laboratory at Wright-Patterson AFB, and ten years as an AFIT professor.

After retiring from the Air Force in 1971, he joined the Engineering faculty of the University of Kentucky, located in Lexington. He and Roberta enjoyed fifteen years in that charming city, a marvelous environment for children. They then moved back to Dayton, where Frank re-joined the AFIT faculty as a civilian. He retired from AFIT as a Professor Emeritus in 1992.

During his academic career he carried out research on logic and Boolean algebra, publishing many papers in these fields as well as a book in 1990 entitled Boolean Reasoning. A second edition of this book was brought out by Dover Publications in 2003.

He retired from AFIT as a Professor Emeritus in 1992 and moved with Roberta in 2000 to the Tide Point retirement community on Hilton Head Island. There he continued active research; in his eighties he published articles in The Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic, The History and Philosophy of Logic, Discrete Applied Mathematics, and Information Sciences.

He is survived by Roberta, his beloved wife and companion for years; children Amy, Thomas and Emily; and five grandchildren.

A graveside service will be held at 11:00 am, Thursday, March 13, 2025 at Beaufort National Cemetery, 1601 Boundary St., Beaufort with full military honors.