The active career of Judge Everett J. Brown has been guided and controlled by a spirit of enterprise, progress and initiative, has been influenced by high professional and personal standards and dominated always by a sense of his responsibility as a man and as a public servant, these qualities bringing him distinction and success at the bar and on the bench and gaining for him at the early age of thirty-three the position of judge of the superior court of Alameda county. He is not only the youngest judge on the bench, but, what is of more value, his administration of the law has been of a character that has won for him a high position among his colleagues as a jurist and as a man and an enviable place in the regard of the public at large.
Judge Brown acquired his early education in the grammar schools of Oakland and was graduated from the Oakland high school in 1894. He afterward entered the University of California where he made an excellent record, graduating with the degree of Ph. B. in 1898, when he was twenty-one years of age. With him there was no hesitation or indecision in choosing a life work, for the profession of law had always attracted him, and he had fully determined upon this before his graduation. He promptly enrolled as a student in Hasting's College of Law, affiliated with the state university, and he supplemented his studies at the college by practical experience in the offices of Hon. Victor H. Metcalf, with whom he remained until the latter's appointment to ex-President Roosevelt's cabinet. He thus had the advantage of constant association with a fine legal mind and was consequently-unusually well equipped for practice when he was admitted to the bar in 1901.
Judge Brown opened his first office in Oakland and was immediately successful, his ability, enterprise and knowledge of his profession, drawing to him a large and representative patronage. He became connected with a great deal of important litigation and skilfully conducted a number of difficult cases, proving able in argument, lucid in presentation and effective in his appeals before the court. Having attracted considerable attention as a rising young attorney, he received the appointment as deputy district attorney of Alameda county in 1903 and completed one term, serving with such energy, conscientiousness and ability that at the expiration of the period he secured the nomination on the republican ticket for the office of district attorney, to which he was elected by a gratifying majority. About two years of his term had expired when he was elected to the bench of the superior court of Alameda county, a position which he has since filled with credit and dignity. Judge Brown is an alert, active and vigorous young man and an excellent judge, always ready to weigh carefully both sides of a case, never ready to compromise in any way with his principles, but withal courteous and sympathetic in his relations with his associates and with the public. People who know him personally find him an unselfish and cordial young man who recognizes all the ties and obligations of life and meets them promptly and in a cheerful spirit. He seems to have learned by precept and example what most men have to learn by experience, and this is probably one of the greatest elements in the success which has brought him at the age of thirty-three to his present high and responsible office.
Judge Brown married in Oakland in 1905 Miss Winifred L. Osborne and they are the parents of three children: Winifred, Everett and Jean. His mother Mrs. Matilda Brown is well known in the city where for many years she has been a leader in the promotion of various charitable and philanthropic enterprises. At present she is president of the King's Daughter's Home. The official career of Judge Brown has been marked by straightforward, able and constructive work in the public service and in the private relations of his life he has proved himself loyal, honorable and upright--one of the men of distinction and ability in this part of California.
Past and Present of Alameda County California, Vol. II
Published in Chicago by The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company
1914
Transcribed by Linda Jackson 7/29/2008, Pages 504-506
Alameda County Biographies ~ Archive Biography Index ~ Archive Index
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