Francis (Frank) J. Brown, 88, a DePaul University professor emeritus and long-time advocate of educational vouchers and parental rights in education, died Saturday, July 25 at Our Lady of the Resurrection Medical Center. He most recently lived in the Montclare neighborhood on the Northwest Side but had been a long time resident of South Holland.

Brown taught at DePaul for 45 years as a professor of economics. As department chairman, he fashioned an economics department at DePaul that to this day has a unique blend of social, institutional, historical, and neoclassical perspectives.

Brown retired from the full-time faculty at DePaul in 1975, but he continued to teach several courses each year as an emeritus professor. He was an active teacher well into his 80s, until he suffered a debilitating stroke in 1996.

He was best know for his passionate advocacy of educational vouchers and his testimony before state and congressional committees on dozens of occasions on behalf of voucher plans. As founder and chairman of the National Association For Personal Rights in Education, Brown worked assiduously for governmental recognition of the primary rights of parents and students in receiving tax dollars for educational expenditures, regardless of whether students attended private or public schools. Thousands of college students have benefited from Illinois State Scholarships for which he tirelessly fought.

Although educational vouchers are still controversial, Brown was very much from the old school of education, one of his colleagues at DePaul, Professor James Ciecka, recalled.

"Frank would allow students to be at most 10 minutes late for class," Ciecka said. "Then he would lock the door and no one else was allowed to enter the class. When asked why he did that, Frank would explain that he was 82 years old, he lived in South Holland, and if he could be on time for a 9 a.m. class in the Loop, then a 19-year old student should be on time as well."

Brown also was known for his translations of the five most important papal encyclicals dealing with economic issues and principles of social justice. His translations became recognized as the most authoritative in English.

Brown was born in Chicago in 1910 and was raised in St. Patrick’s parish on the Near West Side. He received his doctorate in economics from Catholic University in Washington D.C. in 1941. He served in the U.S. Army in France and Belgium during World War II.

He is survived by Frances, his wife of 46 years, and six children: Margaret Rose, Frank, Thomas, Anna, Chuck and John, and two grandchildren Visitation will be held from 2 to 9 p.m.

Wednesday, July 29, at Belmont Funeral Home, 7120 W. Belmont Ave. The funeral will begin at 10:45 a.m. Thursday, July 30, at Belmont Funeral Home and proceed to St. Williams Church, 2600 N. Sayre St., where mass will be said at 11:30 a.m. Interment will be at All Saints

Cemetery, 700 N. River Rd., Des Plaines, on Thursday. In lieu of flowers, donations are requested for the National Kidney Foundation, 600 S. Federal St., Chicago, IL 60605.