Excerpts from Ual’s autobiography, written about 1972, with some notes by his son Darrell between brackets
My father, William Jasper Brown, was a building contractor. Three months before I was born, a carpenter let a board slip, knocking my father from the building. He was bedfast for one year and the accident left him crippled for life. When I was six years old my mother died [on Dec 5, 1913], leaving my older brother (born August 30, 1901) and me. My crippled father, pursuing a trade as cabinet maker in a small community, could no way supervise a six year and a twelve year old son.
[So the next year, 1914, after Ual turned 7, his father took him to live with his half-sister Nora in Tecumseh, which was thirty miles north on the rail line. That line goes on to Kay county, and his father sold his properties in Johnsonville and moved with Ual's older brother Dempsey to Tonkawa, Kay county, Oklahoma, where could live with his daughter Mertie and his son Nathan.]
When I was eight, I was sent by train [from Tecumseh] to a half-sister [Lura Warthen] in Lakin, southwestern Kansas. I was not especially welcome as she had a son four years my senior, and my sister, being older than my mother, somewhat resented my presence. Thankfully, her husband [Bob Warthen] was very intelligent (a former school teacher) as well as a prominent irrigated-farm operator. He taught me many of the realities and facts of life that I have retained to this day.
I was eight years old when I started school at a one-teacher, one-room rural school. I took two grades per year through the sixth grade and made a very good grade on the county eighth-grade examination. I went to Lakin High School and was All-District in both basketball and track. At the end of my sophomore year, I was paid $40 a month as a farm hand by my brother-in-law [Bob Warthen].
My junior year, I left the family, obtained a job in a confectionary for room and board. In 1925 my older brother sent me a railroad ticket to join him in Tonkawa, Oklahoma (I was working in the wheat harvest at the time). In Tonkawa I worked in a hardware store, but realized I should further my education. The store owner offered me a raise to stay but I was determined enough to obtain a job at the Bank of Commerce where I did janitor work, filed cancelled checks, typed remittance statements to correspondent banks, helped to clerk farm sales and was just "general flunky".
I enrolled at University Preparatory School (now Northern Oklahoma College) [in 1926] and made a good grade on the entrance examination. I studied history, mathematics, typing, English, botany and specialized in rapid calculation and business law. I had obtained janitor jobs for two doctors and a lawyer and had to clean all the offices before walking 11 blocks to school for an 8 o’clock class. In the summers of 1926 and 1927 I did gas leakage survey for the Consolidated Gas Company of Philadelphia area office in Ponca City … At the same time I continued my school jobs.
In 1928 I was graduated from UPS … I then went to work for Champlin Refining Company in Enid, Oklahoma as bookkeeper-clerk. In 1930 I joined the Magnolia Petroleum Company (now Mobil Oil Co.) [in Oklahoma City] as accounts receivable bookkeeper. I worked through the ranks until I was assistant division credit manager (for entire State of Oklahoma). We had 15,000 accounts receivables. In the move up the ranks, I was also cost accountant.
In 1936, the Anderson-Prichard Oil Company (at that time one of the largest independent oil producers and refiners) decided to add a retail marketing division. I was chosen and given $15,000 to start the business and was made assistant secretary as I had to sign all legal documents and checks. In fact, the entire responsibility was mine. I left Anderson-Prichard in 1940, with their net worth [of the retail marketing division having grown to] $290,000. I started my own business, the Brown Engineering Co., with $400 capital. [Brown Electro Company was first registered on Jan 23, 1940, and was registered again on May 14, 1949, with its business at 17 North Dewey, Oklahoma City, OK.]
While with Magnolia, I attended most engineering meetings. One main problem encountered in their lubrication experiences was to cool internal combustion industrial engines, as well as automobiles, due to scale formation in the engine block, reducing the transfer of heat to the cooling system. Diagrams of the engine indicated the greater thickness of scale formed at the point of the highest temperatures. I thought about this condition for several years and with research and all information available, and assistance from the chemistry departments [of various universities] I came to the conclusion the scale formations, which consisted of calcium and magnesium elements, was due to a chemical plating process as each of these substances are elements and become ionized under heat and are attracted to the element iron of the engine block, in the same manner as gold or silver plating.
I … decided to manufacture a galvanic cell (wet cell battery) consisting of a cylindrical copper case, with a smaller size zinc negative anode suspended in the center by use of conducting end-plates. This device would have a potential of 1.1 volts, amperage depending on the foreign particles in an ionic state due to heat, in solution as electrolyte. This amperage would neutralize these foreign particles, causing them to coagulate and settle as sludge. This chemical producing machine (counter electromotive forces) was tried in 1940 in high-pressure drilling boilers which use raw make-up water from any available source. IT WORKED!
I was granted the following patents, each for different application:
# 2,401,546; # 2,415,576; # 2,468,357 [issued in 1946,
The Patent Office designated and described these as:
(1) "Scale Remover and Scale and Corrosion Preventer". [applied in 1942, issued in 1946]
(2) "Electrochemical Scale Remover and Scale and Corrosion Preventer". [applied in 1943, issued in 1947]
(3) "Self Energizing Electrolytic Corrosion Preventer". [applied in 1946, issued in 1949]
The War Production Board granted me a AA-l priority-- thanks to letters from Phillips Petroleum Company, Shell Oil Company, Magnolia Petroleum Company, Simpson-Fell Oil Co. and Noble Oil Company (the last two of Ardmore, Oklahoma). However, the Board only approved 50% of my request for materials on a quarterly basis. By 1944 the devices were merchandised in Louisiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Kansas, Texas, Nebraska, Tennessee and Oklahoma.
In 1955 the eastern mill which processed the negative anodes, increased delivery from 30 days to 26 weeks. I had spent many hours experimenting on compounds to increase the efficiency of the negative anode and had many back orders with the mill. They finally processed all at one time, and all were defective. They were not processed correctly. It was not determined that the anodes were defective for several months. The Mill readily admitted the anodes were defective but would only give me credit for the return of the unused anodes on inventory. I spent $35,000 attempting to correct their error but my business received a terrific reverse and my finances became strained. I tried for several years to re-establish the business but lacked operating funds to continue on a profitable basis.
January 2, 1968, I joined the Oklahoma City Urban Renewal Authority as a business relocation specialist. The job requirement called for a BA Degree in business, business administration or allied field. To date I have moved over 290 downtown businesses, entailing over $500,000 Federal funds (all relocation expenses are 100% Federal funds).
Our oldest child was a member of Camp Fire Girls. I was elected to the Oklahoma City Council of Camp Fire Girls, where I served for four years … Later I was coach of the Hawthorne Jr. "Y" baseball team [in which my son played], keeping the same team almost intact for four years. We had a great team, winning second in State Tournament … I worked in Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and Explorer Scouts for a total of 14 years [with both sons reaching] Eagle Scout rank … I have been on the Administrative Board of Wesley United Methodist Church for seven different 3-year terms.
Additional notes by Darrell Brown
The earliest record of Ual is the 1910 census, where his name was written as “Eual.” This is a form of the name “Euel” and “Euell,” which means “Yule,” as in Christmastime. In high school, however, Ual’s record-setting speed in track earned him the unwanted nickname “Jackrabbit,” but this was shortened to “Jack,” which is how he was known for the rest of his life.
From 1915 to 1925 Ual lived on a farm with his half-sister Lura and her husband Robert Warthen, who served as his de facto parents. Like all farm children, he helped with the farm work, getting up early to milk the cows and helping bring in the harvest. A Kansas State inventory of the farm in the 1925 census shows it had 160 acres, with 20 acres sown in winter wheat and 25 in sorghum. It had 25 acres of prairie-grass pasture for its 15 horses, 5 milk cows, and 7 beef cows. There were 5 stands of bees and 204 hens. The farm produced 180 bushels of wheat, 150 pounds of butter, and 80 pounds of honey, as well as milk, eggs, poultry, and beef.
As a young man in Oklahoma City his main hobbies were ballroom dancing and boating, and later fishing and hunting. He met his future wife Christel on a blind date, and she said later she was impressed with his dancing. They courted for two years, going to formal dances sponsored by the social clubs to which they each belonged. Ual popped the question on Valentine’s Day, reinforced by a Valentine’s poem that he sent her by telegram. They were married on October 29th, 1933, in Chandler, Oklahoma, where Christel had grown up, then moved into an apartment in Oklahoma City. Like his parents and siblings, Ual had belonged to the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), but when he married he joined the Methodist Church to which his wife belonged. They remained social active, belonging to a bridge club and attending formal dances sponsored by the Young Men’s Club. The dancing, however, ended around 1952, when Ual exceeded the age limit of the club. At their 25th anniversary celebration they renewed their vows in a repeat wedding ceremony, with the same minister officiating, and at the same location (the home of Christel’s sister Grace Potter in Chandler, Oklahoma). They celebrated their 50th anniversary more sedately at their daughter Carolyn’s home in Oklahoma City. Throughout their married life they always exchanged romantic notes and cards on Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, their birthdays, and their wedding anniversary.
Ual and Christel had three children: Carolyn Sue, Kenneth G., and Darrell. Carolyn attended Oklahoma State University, married Jack Bedingfield, and settled in Oklahoma City. Kenneth and Darrell attended Duke University, went on to earn PhDs in their fields, and eventually settled in North Carolina.
After retirement at age 72, Ual served as a volunteer tax counselor for the elderly. At age 74 he asked Jesus to come into his life and to help him abstain from smoking and drink, with some success. Nevertheless, the years of smoking left him ill with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and from age 80 it left him bed-ridden. For the next two years he was cared for at home by his wife Christel, with help from a kindly care-giver, Nola Anderson. His whole family was with him during his final days.
Obituary, published in The Daily Oklahoman on July 7, 1990
BROWN Ual J. "Jack", 82, died at home in Oklahoma City on January 4, 1990. He was born in McClain County Oklahoma on July 28, 1907, the son of William J. and Doshie Runyan Brown. Orphaned at a young age, he grew up in Lakin, Kansas, where he was a state record-holder in track. He returned to Oklahoma to attend Northern Oklahoma College in Tonkawa. He graduated in 1928 and moved to Oklahoma City, where he met Christel Gerardy. They were married on October 28, 1933, in Chandler, Oklahoma. Later Jack established and operated his own business in Oklahoma City, from where he marketed products on which he had been granted patents. From January 1968 until his retirement on June 30, 1980, he was employed by Oklahoma City Urban Renewal Authority as Business Relocation Specialist.
Since 1938 Jack had been an active member of Wesley United Methodist Church. He was also a member of the National Association of Corrosion Engineers, a member of Amity Masonic Lodge, a 32nd degree Mason, a member of India Temple Shrine, and past member of the Commandery of the Knights Templar. While his three children were growing up, he served on the Oklahoma City Council for Camp Fire Girls, and he spent many years working in the Jr. YMCA baseball program and in the Boy Scouts of America. He always enjoyed being outside and was an avid hunter and fisherman. After retirement, he became involved in volunteer tax counseling for the elderly and in the American Association of Retired People.
Jack is survived by his loving wife, Christel, of the home; by a daughter, Carolyn and her husband Jack Bedingfield of OKC; by sons, Dr. Kenneth G. of Chapel Hill, NC, and D. R. and his wife Lenore, who are missionaries in Africa; four grandchildren, Todd Bedingfield of Boston, Scott Bedingfield of Atlanta, Christina Brown and Daniel Brown, and by a host of other relatives and friends.
My father, William Jasper Brown, was a building contractor. Three months before I was born, a carpenter let a board slip, knocking my father from the building. He was bedfast for one year and the accident left him crippled for life. When I was six years old my mother died [on Dec 5, 1913], leaving my older brother (born August 30, 1901) and me. My crippled father, pursuing a trade as cabinet maker in a small community, could no way supervise a six year and a twelve year old son.
[So the next year, 1914, after Ual turned 7, his father took him to live with his half-sister Nora in Tecumseh, which was thirty miles north on the rail line. That line goes on to Kay county, and his father sold his properties in Johnsonville and moved with Ual's older brother Dempsey to Tonkawa, Kay county, Oklahoma, where could live with his daughter Mertie and his son Nathan.]
When I was eight, I was sent by train [from Tecumseh] to a half-sister [Lura Warthen] in Lakin, southwestern Kansas. I was not especially welcome as she had a son four years my senior, and my sister, being older than my mother, somewhat resented my presence. Thankfully, her husband [Bob Warthen] was very intelligent (a former school teacher) as well as a prominent irrigated-farm operator. He taught me many of the realities and facts of life that I have retained to this day.
I was eight years old when I started school at a one-teacher, one-room rural school. I took two grades per year through the sixth grade and made a very good grade on the county eighth-grade examination. I went to Lakin High School and was All-District in both basketball and track. At the end of my sophomore year, I was paid $40 a month as a farm hand by my brother-in-law [Bob Warthen].
My junior year, I left the family, obtained a job in a confectionary for room and board. In 1925 my older brother sent me a railroad ticket to join him in Tonkawa, Oklahoma (I was working in the wheat harvest at the time). In Tonkawa I worked in a hardware store, but realized I should further my education. The store owner offered me a raise to stay but I was determined enough to obtain a job at the Bank of Commerce where I did janitor work, filed cancelled checks, typed remittance statements to correspondent banks, helped to clerk farm sales and was just "general flunky".
I enrolled at University Preparatory School (now Northern Oklahoma College) [in 1926] and made a good grade on the entrance examination. I studied history, mathematics, typing, English, botany and specialized in rapid calculation and business law. I had obtained janitor jobs for two doctors and a lawyer and had to clean all the offices before walking 11 blocks to school for an 8 o’clock class. In the summers of 1926 and 1927 I did gas leakage survey for the Consolidated Gas Company of Philadelphia area office in Ponca City … At the same time I continued my school jobs.
In 1928 I was graduated from UPS … I then went to work for Champlin Refining Company in Enid, Oklahoma as bookkeeper-clerk. In 1930 I joined the Magnolia Petroleum Company (now Mobil Oil Co.) [in Oklahoma City] as accounts receivable bookkeeper. I worked through the ranks until I was assistant division credit manager (for entire State of Oklahoma). We had 15,000 accounts receivables. In the move up the ranks, I was also cost accountant.
In 1936, the Anderson-Prichard Oil Company (at that time one of the largest independent oil producers and refiners) decided to add a retail marketing division. I was chosen and given $15,000 to start the business and was made assistant secretary as I had to sign all legal documents and checks. In fact, the entire responsibility was mine. I left Anderson-Prichard in 1940, with their net worth [of the retail marketing division having grown to] $290,000. I started my own business, the Brown Engineering Co., with $400 capital. [Brown Electro Company was first registered on Jan 23, 1940, and was registered again on May 14, 1949, with its business at 17 North Dewey, Oklahoma City, OK.]
While with Magnolia, I attended most engineering meetings. One main problem encountered in their lubrication experiences was to cool internal combustion industrial engines, as well as automobiles, due to scale formation in the engine block, reducing the transfer of heat to the cooling system. Diagrams of the engine indicated the greater thickness of scale formed at the point of the highest temperatures. I thought about this condition for several years and with research and all information available, and assistance from the chemistry departments [of various universities] I came to the conclusion the scale formations, which consisted of calcium and magnesium elements, was due to a chemical plating process as each of these substances are elements and become ionized under heat and are attracted to the element iron of the engine block, in the same manner as gold or silver plating.
I … decided to manufacture a galvanic cell (wet cell battery) consisting of a cylindrical copper case, with a smaller size zinc negative anode suspended in the center by use of conducting end-plates. This device would have a potential of 1.1 volts, amperage depending on the foreign particles in an ionic state due to heat, in solution as electrolyte. This amperage would neutralize these foreign particles, causing them to coagulate and settle as sludge. This chemical producing machine (counter electromotive forces) was tried in 1940 in high-pressure drilling boilers which use raw make-up water from any available source. IT WORKED!
I was granted the following patents, each for different application:
# 2,401,546; # 2,415,576; # 2,468,357 [issued in 1946,
The Patent Office designated and described these as:
(1) "Scale Remover and Scale and Corrosion Preventer". [applied in 1942, issued in 1946]
(2) "Electrochemical Scale Remover and Scale and Corrosion Preventer". [applied in 1943, issued in 1947]
(3) "Self Energizing Electrolytic Corrosion Preventer". [applied in 1946, issued in 1949]
The War Production Board granted me a AA-l priority-- thanks to letters from Phillips Petroleum Company, Shell Oil Company, Magnolia Petroleum Company, Simpson-Fell Oil Co. and Noble Oil Company (the last two of Ardmore, Oklahoma). However, the Board only approved 50% of my request for materials on a quarterly basis. By 1944 the devices were merchandised in Louisiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Kansas, Texas, Nebraska, Tennessee and Oklahoma.
In 1955 the eastern mill which processed the negative anodes, increased delivery from 30 days to 26 weeks. I had spent many hours experimenting on compounds to increase the efficiency of the negative anode and had many back orders with the mill. They finally processed all at one time, and all were defective. They were not processed correctly. It was not determined that the anodes were defective for several months. The Mill readily admitted the anodes were defective but would only give me credit for the return of the unused anodes on inventory. I spent $35,000 attempting to correct their error but my business received a terrific reverse and my finances became strained. I tried for several years to re-establish the business but lacked operating funds to continue on a profitable basis.
January 2, 1968, I joined the Oklahoma City Urban Renewal Authority as a business relocation specialist. The job requirement called for a BA Degree in business, business administration or allied field. To date I have moved over 290 downtown businesses, entailing over $500,000 Federal funds (all relocation expenses are 100% Federal funds).
Our oldest child was a member of Camp Fire Girls. I was elected to the Oklahoma City Council of Camp Fire Girls, where I served for four years … Later I was coach of the Hawthorne Jr. "Y" baseball team [in which my son played], keeping the same team almost intact for four years. We had a great team, winning second in State Tournament … I worked in Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and Explorer Scouts for a total of 14 years [with both sons reaching] Eagle Scout rank … I have been on the Administrative Board of Wesley United Methodist Church for seven different 3-year terms.
Additional notes by Darrell Brown
The earliest record of Ual is the 1910 census, where his name was written as “Eual.” This is a form of the name “Euel” and “Euell,” which means “Yule,” as in Christmastime. In high school, however, Ual’s record-setting speed in track earned him the unwanted nickname “Jackrabbit,” but this was shortened to “Jack,” which is how he was known for the rest of his life.
From 1915 to 1925 Ual lived on a farm with his half-sister Lura and her husband Robert Warthen, who served as his de facto parents. Like all farm children, he helped with the farm work, getting up early to milk the cows and helping bring in the harvest. A Kansas State inventory of the farm in the 1925 census shows it had 160 acres, with 20 acres sown in winter wheat and 25 in sorghum. It had 25 acres of prairie-grass pasture for its 15 horses, 5 milk cows, and 7 beef cows. There were 5 stands of bees and 204 hens. The farm produced 180 bushels of wheat, 150 pounds of butter, and 80 pounds of honey, as well as milk, eggs, poultry, and beef.
As a young man in Oklahoma City his main hobbies were ballroom dancing and boating, and later fishing and hunting. He met his future wife Christel on a blind date, and she said later she was impressed with his dancing. They courted for two years, going to formal dances sponsored by the social clubs to which they each belonged. Ual popped the question on Valentine’s Day, reinforced by a Valentine’s poem that he sent her by telegram. They were married on October 29th, 1933, in Chandler, Oklahoma, where Christel had grown up, then moved into an apartment in Oklahoma City. Like his parents and siblings, Ual had belonged to the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), but when he married he joined the Methodist Church to which his wife belonged. They remained social active, belonging to a bridge club and attending formal dances sponsored by the Young Men’s Club. The dancing, however, ended around 1952, when Ual exceeded the age limit of the club. At their 25th anniversary celebration they renewed their vows in a repeat wedding ceremony, with the same minister officiating, and at the same location (the home of Christel’s sister Grace Potter in Chandler, Oklahoma). They celebrated their 50th anniversary more sedately at their daughter Carolyn’s home in Oklahoma City. Throughout their married life they always exchanged romantic notes and cards on Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, their birthdays, and their wedding anniversary.
Ual and Christel had three children: Carolyn Sue, Kenneth G., and Darrell. Carolyn attended Oklahoma State University, married Jack Bedingfield, and settled in Oklahoma City. Kenneth and Darrell attended Duke University, went on to earn PhDs in their fields, and eventually settled in North Carolina.
After retirement at age 72, Ual served as a volunteer tax counselor for the elderly. At age 74 he asked Jesus to come into his life and to help him abstain from smoking and drink, with some success. Nevertheless, the years of smoking left him ill with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and from age 80 it left him bed-ridden. For the next two years he was cared for at home by his wife Christel, with help from a kindly care-giver, Nola Anderson. His whole family was with him during his final days.
Obituary, published in The Daily Oklahoman on July 7, 1990
BROWN Ual J. "Jack", 82, died at home in Oklahoma City on January 4, 1990. He was born in McClain County Oklahoma on July 28, 1907, the son of William J. and Doshie Runyan Brown. Orphaned at a young age, he grew up in Lakin, Kansas, where he was a state record-holder in track. He returned to Oklahoma to attend Northern Oklahoma College in Tonkawa. He graduated in 1928 and moved to Oklahoma City, where he met Christel Gerardy. They were married on October 28, 1933, in Chandler, Oklahoma. Later Jack established and operated his own business in Oklahoma City, from where he marketed products on which he had been granted patents. From January 1968 until his retirement on June 30, 1980, he was employed by Oklahoma City Urban Renewal Authority as Business Relocation Specialist.
Since 1938 Jack had been an active member of Wesley United Methodist Church. He was also a member of the National Association of Corrosion Engineers, a member of Amity Masonic Lodge, a 32nd degree Mason, a member of India Temple Shrine, and past member of the Commandery of the Knights Templar. While his three children were growing up, he served on the Oklahoma City Council for Camp Fire Girls, and he spent many years working in the Jr. YMCA baseball program and in the Boy Scouts of America. He always enjoyed being outside and was an avid hunter and fisherman. After retirement, he became involved in volunteer tax counseling for the elderly and in the American Association of Retired People.
Jack is survived by his loving wife, Christel, of the home; by a daughter, Carolyn and her husband Jack Bedingfield of OKC; by sons, Dr. Kenneth G. of Chapel Hill, NC, and D. R. and his wife Lenore, who are missionaries in Africa; four grandchildren, Todd Bedingfield of Boston, Scott Bedingfield of Atlanta, Christina Brown and Daniel Brown, and by a host of other relatives and friends.
Excerpts from Ual’s autobiography, written about 1972, with some notes by his son Darrell between brackets
My father, William Jasper Brown, was a building contractor. Three months before I was born, a carpenter let a board slip, knocking my father from the building. He was bedfast for one year and the accident left him crippled for life. When I was six years old my mother died [on Dec 5, 1913], leaving my older brother (born August 30, 1901) and me. My crippled father, pursuing a trade as cabinet maker in a small community, could no way supervise a six year and a twelve year old son.
[So the next year, 1914, after Ual turned 7, his father took him to live with his half-sister Nora in Tecumseh, which was thirty miles north on the rail line. That line goes on to Kay county, and his father sold his properties in Johnsonville and moved with Ual's older brother Dempsey to Tonkawa, Kay county, Oklahoma, where could live with his daughter Mertie and his son Nathan.]
When I was eight, I was sent by train [from Tecumseh] to a half-sister [Lura Warthen] in Lakin, southwestern Kansas. I was not especially welcome as she had a son four years my senior, and my sister, being older than my mother, somewhat resented my presence. Thankfully, her husband [Bob Warthen] was very intelligent (a former school teacher) as well as a prominent irrigated-farm operator. He taught me many of the realities and facts of life that I have retained to this day.
I was eight years old when I started school at a one-teacher, one-room rural school. I took two grades per year through the sixth grade and made a very good grade on the county eighth-grade examination. I went to Lakin High School and was All-District in both basketball and track. At the end of my sophomore year, I was paid $40 a month as a farm hand by my brother-in-law [Bob Warthen].
My junior year, I left the family, obtained a job in a confectionary for room and board. In 1925 my older brother sent me a railroad ticket to join him in Tonkawa, Oklahoma (I was working in the wheat harvest at the time). In Tonkawa I worked in a hardware store, but realized I should further my education. The store owner offered me a raise to stay but I was determined enough to obtain a job at the Bank of Commerce where I did janitor work, filed cancelled checks, typed remittance statements to correspondent banks, helped to clerk farm sales and was just "general flunky".
I enrolled at University Preparatory School (now Northern Oklahoma College) [in 1926] and made a good grade on the entrance examination. I studied history, mathematics, typing, English, botany and specialized in rapid calculation and business law. I had obtained janitor jobs for two doctors and a lawyer and had to clean all the offices before walking 11 blocks to school for an 8 o’clock class. In the summers of 1926 and 1927 I did gas leakage survey for the Consolidated Gas Company of Philadelphia area office in Ponca City … At the same time I continued my school jobs.
In 1928 I was graduated from UPS … I then went to work for Champlin Refining Company in Enid, Oklahoma as bookkeeper-clerk. In 1930 I joined the Magnolia Petroleum Company (now Mobil Oil Co.) [in Oklahoma City] as accounts receivable bookkeeper. I worked through the ranks until I was assistant division credit manager (for entire State of Oklahoma). We had 15,000 accounts receivables. In the move up the ranks, I was also cost accountant.
In 1936, the Anderson-Prichard Oil Company (at that time one of the largest independent oil producers and refiners) decided to add a retail marketing division. I was chosen and given $15,000 to start the business and was made assistant secretary as I had to sign all legal documents and checks. In fact, the entire responsibility was mine. I left Anderson-Prichard in 1940, with their net worth [of the retail marketing division having grown to] $290,000. I started my own business, the Brown Engineering Co., with $400 capital. [Brown Electro Company was first registered on Jan 23, 1940, and was registered again on May 14, 1949, with its business at 17 North Dewey, Oklahoma City, OK.]
While with Magnolia, I attended most engineering meetings. One main problem encountered in their lubrication experiences was to cool internal combustion industrial engines, as well as automobiles, due to scale formation in the engine block, reducing the transfer of heat to the cooling system. Diagrams of the engine indicated the greater thickness of scale formed at the point of the highest temperatures. I thought about this condition for several years and with research and all information available, and assistance from the chemistry departments [of various universities] I came to the conclusion the scale formations, which consisted of calcium and magnesium elements, was due to a chemical plating process as each of these substances are elements and become ionized under heat and are attracted to the element iron of the engine block, in the same manner as gold or silver plating.
I … decided to manufacture a galvanic cell (wet cell battery) consisting of a cylindrical copper case, with a smaller size zinc negative anode suspended in the center by use of conducting end-plates. This device would have a potential of 1.1 volts, amperage depending on the foreign particles in an ionic state due to heat, in solution as electrolyte. This amperage would neutralize these foreign particles, causing them to coagulate and settle as sludge. This chemical producing machine (counter electromotive forces) was tried in 1940 in high-pressure drilling boilers which use raw make-up water from any available source. IT WORKED!
I was granted the following patents, each for different application:
# 2,401,546; # 2,415,576; # 2,468,357 [issued in 1946,
The Patent Office designated and described these as:
(1) "Scale Remover and Scale and Corrosion Preventer". [applied in 1942, issued in 1946]
(2) "Electrochemical Scale Remover and Scale and Corrosion Preventer". [applied in 1943, issued in 1947]
(3) "Self Energizing Electrolytic Corrosion Preventer". [applied in 1946, issued in 1949]
The War Production Board granted me a AA-l priority-- thanks to letters from Phillips Petroleum Company, Shell Oil Company, Magnolia Petroleum Company, Simpson-Fell Oil Co. and Noble Oil Company (the last two of Ardmore, Oklahoma). However, the Board only approved 50% of my request for materials on a quarterly basis. By 1944 the devices were merchandised in Louisiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Kansas, Texas, Nebraska, Tennessee and Oklahoma.
In 1955 the eastern mill which processed the negative anodes, increased delivery from 30 days to 26 weeks. I had spent many hours experimenting on compounds to increase the efficiency of the negative anode and had many back orders with the mill. They finally processed all at one time, and all were defective. They were not processed correctly. It was not determined that the anodes were defective for several months. The Mill readily admitted the anodes were defective but would only give me credit for the return of the unused anodes on inventory. I spent $35,000 attempting to correct their error but my business received a terrific reverse and my finances became strained. I tried for several years to re-establish the business but lacked operating funds to continue on a profitable basis.
January 2, 1968, I joined the Oklahoma City Urban Renewal Authority as a business relocation specialist. The job requirement called for a BA Degree in business, business administration or allied field. To date I have moved over 290 downtown businesses, entailing over $500,000 Federal funds (all relocation expenses are 100% Federal funds).
Our oldest child was a member of Camp Fire Girls. I was elected to the Oklahoma City Council of Camp Fire Girls, where I served for four years … Later I was coach of the Hawthorne Jr. "Y" baseball team [in which my son played], keeping the same team almost intact for four years. We had a great team, winning second in State Tournament … I worked in Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and Explorer Scouts for a total of 14 years [with both sons reaching] Eagle Scout rank … I have been on the Administrative Board of Wesley United Methodist Church for seven different 3-year terms.
Additional notes by Darrell Brown
The earliest record of Ual is the 1910 census, where his name was written as “Eual.” This is a form of the name “Euel” and “Euell,” which means “Yule,” as in Christmastime. In high school, however, Ual’s record-setting speed in track earned him the unwanted nickname “Jackrabbit,” but this was shortened to “Jack,” which is how he was known for the rest of his life.
From 1915 to 1925 Ual lived on a farm with his half-sister Lura and her husband Robert Warthen, who served as his de facto parents. Like all farm children, he helped with the farm work, getting up early to milk the cows and helping bring in the harvest. A Kansas State inventory of the farm in the 1925 census shows it had 160 acres, with 20 acres sown in winter wheat and 25 in sorghum. It had 25 acres of prairie-grass pasture for its 15 horses, 5 milk cows, and 7 beef cows. There were 5 stands of bees and 204 hens. The farm produced 180 bushels of wheat, 150 pounds of butter, and 80 pounds of honey, as well as milk, eggs, poultry, and beef.
As a young man in Oklahoma City his main hobbies were ballroom dancing and boating, and later fishing and hunting. He met his future wife Christel on a blind date, and she said later she was impressed with his dancing. They courted for two years, going to formal dances sponsored by the social clubs to which they each belonged. Ual popped the question on Valentine’s Day, reinforced by a Valentine’s poem that he sent her by telegram. They were married on October 29th, 1933, in Chandler, Oklahoma, where Christel had grown up, then moved into an apartment in Oklahoma City. Like his parents and siblings, Ual had belonged to the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), but when he married he joined the Methodist Church to which his wife belonged. They remained social active, belonging to a bridge club and attending formal dances sponsored by the Young Men’s Club. The dancing, however, ended around 1952, when Ual exceeded the age limit of the club. At their 25th anniversary celebration they renewed their vows in a repeat wedding ceremony, with the same minister officiating, and at the same location (the home of Christel’s sister Grace Potter in Chandler, Oklahoma). They celebrated their 50th anniversary more sedately at their daughter Carolyn’s home in Oklahoma City. Throughout their married life they always exchanged romantic notes and cards on Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, their birthdays, and their wedding anniversary.
Ual and Christel had three children: Carolyn Sue, Kenneth G., and Darrell. Carolyn attended Oklahoma State University, married Jack Bedingfield, and settled in Oklahoma City. Kenneth and Darrell attended Duke University, went on to earn PhDs in their fields, and eventually settled in North Carolina.
After retirement at age 72, Ual served as a volunteer tax counselor for the elderly. At age 74 he asked Jesus to come into his life and to help him abstain from smoking and drink, with some success. Nevertheless, the years of smoking left him ill with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and from age 80 it left him bed-ridden. For the next two years he was cared for at home by his wife Christel, with help from a kindly care-giver, Nola Anderson. His whole family was with him during his final days.
Obituary, published in The Daily Oklahoman on July 7, 1990
BROWN Ual J. "Jack", 82, died at home in Oklahoma City on January 4, 1990. He was born in McClain County Oklahoma on July 28, 1907, the son of William J. and Doshie Runyan Brown. Orphaned at a young age, he grew up in Lakin, Kansas, where he was a state record-holder in track. He returned to Oklahoma to attend Northern Oklahoma College in Tonkawa. He graduated in 1928 and moved to Oklahoma City, where he met Christel Gerardy. They were married on October 28, 1933, in Chandler, Oklahoma. Later Jack established and operated his own business in Oklahoma City, from where he marketed products on which he had been granted patents. From January 1968 until his retirement on June 30, 1980, he was employed by Oklahoma City Urban Renewal Authority as Business Relocation Specialist.
Since 1938 Jack had been an active member of Wesley United Methodist Church. He was also a member of the National Association of Corrosion Engineers, a member of Amity Masonic Lodge, a 32nd degree Mason, a member of India Temple Shrine, and past member of the Commandery of the Knights Templar. While his three children were growing up, he served on the Oklahoma City Council for Camp Fire Girls, and he spent many years working in the Jr. YMCA baseball program and in the Boy Scouts of America. He always enjoyed being outside and was an avid hunter and fisherman. After retirement, he became involved in volunteer tax counseling for the elderly and in the American Association of Retired People.
Jack is survived by his loving wife, Christel, of the home; by a daughter, Carolyn and her husband Jack Bedingfield of OKC; by sons, Dr. Kenneth G. of Chapel Hill, NC, and D. R. and his wife Lenore, who are missionaries in Africa; four grandchildren, Todd Bedingfield of Boston, Scott Bedingfield of Atlanta, Christina Brown and Daniel Brown, and by a host of other relatives and friends.
My father, William Jasper Brown, was a building contractor. Three months before I was born, a carpenter let a board slip, knocking my father from the building. He was bedfast for one year and the accident left him crippled for life. When I was six years old my mother died [on Dec 5, 1913], leaving my older brother (born August 30, 1901) and me. My crippled father, pursuing a trade as cabinet maker in a small community, could no way supervise a six year and a twelve year old son.
[So the next year, 1914, after Ual turned 7, his father took him to live with his half-sister Nora in Tecumseh, which was thirty miles north on the rail line. That line goes on to Kay county, and his father sold his properties in Johnsonville and moved with Ual's older brother Dempsey to Tonkawa, Kay county, Oklahoma, where could live with his daughter Mertie and his son Nathan.]
When I was eight, I was sent by train [from Tecumseh] to a half-sister [Lura Warthen] in Lakin, southwestern Kansas. I was not especially welcome as she had a son four years my senior, and my sister, being older than my mother, somewhat resented my presence. Thankfully, her husband [Bob Warthen] was very intelligent (a former school teacher) as well as a prominent irrigated-farm operator. He taught me many of the realities and facts of life that I have retained to this day.
I was eight years old when I started school at a one-teacher, one-room rural school. I took two grades per year through the sixth grade and made a very good grade on the county eighth-grade examination. I went to Lakin High School and was All-District in both basketball and track. At the end of my sophomore year, I was paid $40 a month as a farm hand by my brother-in-law [Bob Warthen].
My junior year, I left the family, obtained a job in a confectionary for room and board. In 1925 my older brother sent me a railroad ticket to join him in Tonkawa, Oklahoma (I was working in the wheat harvest at the time). In Tonkawa I worked in a hardware store, but realized I should further my education. The store owner offered me a raise to stay but I was determined enough to obtain a job at the Bank of Commerce where I did janitor work, filed cancelled checks, typed remittance statements to correspondent banks, helped to clerk farm sales and was just "general flunky".
I enrolled at University Preparatory School (now Northern Oklahoma College) [in 1926] and made a good grade on the entrance examination. I studied history, mathematics, typing, English, botany and specialized in rapid calculation and business law. I had obtained janitor jobs for two doctors and a lawyer and had to clean all the offices before walking 11 blocks to school for an 8 o’clock class. In the summers of 1926 and 1927 I did gas leakage survey for the Consolidated Gas Company of Philadelphia area office in Ponca City … At the same time I continued my school jobs.
In 1928 I was graduated from UPS … I then went to work for Champlin Refining Company in Enid, Oklahoma as bookkeeper-clerk. In 1930 I joined the Magnolia Petroleum Company (now Mobil Oil Co.) [in Oklahoma City] as accounts receivable bookkeeper. I worked through the ranks until I was assistant division credit manager (for entire State of Oklahoma). We had 15,000 accounts receivables. In the move up the ranks, I was also cost accountant.
In 1936, the Anderson-Prichard Oil Company (at that time one of the largest independent oil producers and refiners) decided to add a retail marketing division. I was chosen and given $15,000 to start the business and was made assistant secretary as I had to sign all legal documents and checks. In fact, the entire responsibility was mine. I left Anderson-Prichard in 1940, with their net worth [of the retail marketing division having grown to] $290,000. I started my own business, the Brown Engineering Co., with $400 capital. [Brown Electro Company was first registered on Jan 23, 1940, and was registered again on May 14, 1949, with its business at 17 North Dewey, Oklahoma City, OK.]
While with Magnolia, I attended most engineering meetings. One main problem encountered in their lubrication experiences was to cool internal combustion industrial engines, as well as automobiles, due to scale formation in the engine block, reducing the transfer of heat to the cooling system. Diagrams of the engine indicated the greater thickness of scale formed at the point of the highest temperatures. I thought about this condition for several years and with research and all information available, and assistance from the chemistry departments [of various universities] I came to the conclusion the scale formations, which consisted of calcium and magnesium elements, was due to a chemical plating process as each of these substances are elements and become ionized under heat and are attracted to the element iron of the engine block, in the same manner as gold or silver plating.
I … decided to manufacture a galvanic cell (wet cell battery) consisting of a cylindrical copper case, with a smaller size zinc negative anode suspended in the center by use of conducting end-plates. This device would have a potential of 1.1 volts, amperage depending on the foreign particles in an ionic state due to heat, in solution as electrolyte. This amperage would neutralize these foreign particles, causing them to coagulate and settle as sludge. This chemical producing machine (counter electromotive forces) was tried in 1940 in high-pressure drilling boilers which use raw make-up water from any available source. IT WORKED!
I was granted the following patents, each for different application:
# 2,401,546; # 2,415,576; # 2,468,357 [issued in 1946,
The Patent Office designated and described these as:
(1) "Scale Remover and Scale and Corrosion Preventer". [applied in 1942, issued in 1946]
(2) "Electrochemical Scale Remover and Scale and Corrosion Preventer". [applied in 1943, issued in 1947]
(3) "Self Energizing Electrolytic Corrosion Preventer". [applied in 1946, issued in 1949]
The War Production Board granted me a AA-l priority-- thanks to letters from Phillips Petroleum Company, Shell Oil Company, Magnolia Petroleum Company, Simpson-Fell Oil Co. and Noble Oil Company (the last two of Ardmore, Oklahoma). However, the Board only approved 50% of my request for materials on a quarterly basis. By 1944 the devices were merchandised in Louisiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Kansas, Texas, Nebraska, Tennessee and Oklahoma.
In 1955 the eastern mill which processed the negative anodes, increased delivery from 30 days to 26 weeks. I had spent many hours experimenting on compounds to increase the efficiency of the negative anode and had many back orders with the mill. They finally processed all at one time, and all were defective. They were not processed correctly. It was not determined that the anodes were defective for several months. The Mill readily admitted the anodes were defective but would only give me credit for the return of the unused anodes on inventory. I spent $35,000 attempting to correct their error but my business received a terrific reverse and my finances became strained. I tried for several years to re-establish the business but lacked operating funds to continue on a profitable basis.
January 2, 1968, I joined the Oklahoma City Urban Renewal Authority as a business relocation specialist. The job requirement called for a BA Degree in business, business administration or allied field. To date I have moved over 290 downtown businesses, entailing over $500,000 Federal funds (all relocation expenses are 100% Federal funds).
Our oldest child was a member of Camp Fire Girls. I was elected to the Oklahoma City Council of Camp Fire Girls, where I served for four years … Later I was coach of the Hawthorne Jr. "Y" baseball team [in which my son played], keeping the same team almost intact for four years. We had a great team, winning second in State Tournament … I worked in Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and Explorer Scouts for a total of 14 years [with both sons reaching] Eagle Scout rank … I have been on the Administrative Board of Wesley United Methodist Church for seven different 3-year terms.
Additional notes by Darrell Brown
The earliest record of Ual is the 1910 census, where his name was written as “Eual.” This is a form of the name “Euel” and “Euell,” which means “Yule,” as in Christmastime. In high school, however, Ual’s record-setting speed in track earned him the unwanted nickname “Jackrabbit,” but this was shortened to “Jack,” which is how he was known for the rest of his life.
From 1915 to 1925 Ual lived on a farm with his half-sister Lura and her husband Robert Warthen, who served as his de facto parents. Like all farm children, he helped with the farm work, getting up early to milk the cows and helping bring in the harvest. A Kansas State inventory of the farm in the 1925 census shows it had 160 acres, with 20 acres sown in winter wheat and 25 in sorghum. It had 25 acres of prairie-grass pasture for its 15 horses, 5 milk cows, and 7 beef cows. There were 5 stands of bees and 204 hens. The farm produced 180 bushels of wheat, 150 pounds of butter, and 80 pounds of honey, as well as milk, eggs, poultry, and beef.
As a young man in Oklahoma City his main hobbies were ballroom dancing and boating, and later fishing and hunting. He met his future wife Christel on a blind date, and she said later she was impressed with his dancing. They courted for two years, going to formal dances sponsored by the social clubs to which they each belonged. Ual popped the question on Valentine’s Day, reinforced by a Valentine’s poem that he sent her by telegram. They were married on October 29th, 1933, in Chandler, Oklahoma, where Christel had grown up, then moved into an apartment in Oklahoma City. Like his parents and siblings, Ual had belonged to the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), but when he married he joined the Methodist Church to which his wife belonged. They remained social active, belonging to a bridge club and attending formal dances sponsored by the Young Men’s Club. The dancing, however, ended around 1952, when Ual exceeded the age limit of the club. At their 25th anniversary celebration they renewed their vows in a repeat wedding ceremony, with the same minister officiating, and at the same location (the home of Christel’s sister Grace Potter in Chandler, Oklahoma). They celebrated their 50th anniversary more sedately at their daughter Carolyn’s home in Oklahoma City. Throughout their married life they always exchanged romantic notes and cards on Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, their birthdays, and their wedding anniversary.
Ual and Christel had three children: Carolyn Sue, Kenneth G., and Darrell. Carolyn attended Oklahoma State University, married Jack Bedingfield, and settled in Oklahoma City. Kenneth and Darrell attended Duke University, went on to earn PhDs in their fields, and eventually settled in North Carolina.
After retirement at age 72, Ual served as a volunteer tax counselor for the elderly. At age 74 he asked Jesus to come into his life and to help him abstain from smoking and drink, with some success. Nevertheless, the years of smoking left him ill with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and from age 80 it left him bed-ridden. For the next two years he was cared for at home by his wife Christel, with help from a kindly care-giver, Nola Anderson. His whole family was with him during his final days.
Obituary, published in The Daily Oklahoman on July 7, 1990
BROWN Ual J. "Jack", 82, died at home in Oklahoma City on January 4, 1990. He was born in McClain County Oklahoma on July 28, 1907, the son of William J. and Doshie Runyan Brown. Orphaned at a young age, he grew up in Lakin, Kansas, where he was a state record-holder in track. He returned to Oklahoma to attend Northern Oklahoma College in Tonkawa. He graduated in 1928 and moved to Oklahoma City, where he met Christel Gerardy. They were married on October 28, 1933, in Chandler, Oklahoma. Later Jack established and operated his own business in Oklahoma City, from where he marketed products on which he had been granted patents. From January 1968 until his retirement on June 30, 1980, he was employed by Oklahoma City Urban Renewal Authority as Business Relocation Specialist.
Since 1938 Jack had been an active member of Wesley United Methodist Church. He was also a member of the National Association of Corrosion Engineers, a member of Amity Masonic Lodge, a 32nd degree Mason, a member of India Temple Shrine, and past member of the Commandery of the Knights Templar. While his three children were growing up, he served on the Oklahoma City Council for Camp Fire Girls, and he spent many years working in the Jr. YMCA baseball program and in the Boy Scouts of America. He always enjoyed being outside and was an avid hunter and fisherman. After retirement, he became involved in volunteer tax counseling for the elderly and in the American Association of Retired People.
Jack is survived by his loving wife, Christel, of the home; by a daughter, Carolyn and her husband Jack Bedingfield of OKC; by sons, Dr. Kenneth G. of Chapel Hill, NC, and D. R. and his wife Lenore, who are missionaries in Africa; four grandchildren, Todd Bedingfield of Boston, Scott Bedingfield of Atlanta, Christina Brown and Daniel Brown, and by a host of other relatives and friends.
