Professor found dead on campus
California University of Pennsylvania professor Burrell Brown at a local NAACP event in 2004.
Dr. Burrell A. Brown
Dr. Burrell Brown, then-president of the Pennsylvania State Conference of NAACP branches and head of the business and economics department at California University of Pennsylvania, is shown at a Black History Month program in Monessen in 2004.
CALIFORNIA – Burrell Brown, a California University of Pennsylvania professor who was a dedicated leader of the state NAACP and advocated for better opportunities for black Cal U. students, was found dead Sunday in his office on campus.
Brown, 67, of Clairton, died of natural causes following a career in education spanning four decades, one of his longtime friends said Tuesday.
“We could always count on Burrell to walk in our shoes,” said Connie Craig of Jeannette, who served with Brown at the state level of NAACP while he was its president.
“He was a good leader, a well-respected leader. He was always there for us,” Craig said.
Brown and his wife, Anita Schockley, named their three sons after civil rights leaders Julian Bond, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Frederick Douglass as a way to enlighten their lives, he said in a story published in the Observer-Reporter after he was elected faculty union president at Cal U. in 2002.
He hosted a visit to the campus by former national NAACP president Kweisi Mfume in 2002 as director of Cal U.’s Frederick Douglass Institute.
Brown was chairman of the business and economics department at Cal U., where was a professor since 1989, teaching labor relations and human resources management.
After earning his bachelor’s degree there, he taught physics at Clairton High School and received a master’s in business administration from the University of Pittsburgh.
He attended Cal U. in the 1960s, at a time when there were just 50 black students among the 6,000 attending classes there and one black professor on campus. When he became faculty union president, Cal U. had 250 black students, 14 black professors and two black administrators.
He was known on campus for advocating for a black studies program and speaking out about injustices after racist messages were left on dorm room doors in February 2007.
“Dr. Brown was a distinguished faculty member and campus leader for many years, and he will be greatly missed by the entire campus community,” Cal U. spokeswoman Christine Kindl said.