ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, February 18, 1996 TAG: 9602190054
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BEVERLY HILLS, CALIF.
TYPE: NEWS OBIT
SOURCE: Associated Press
Edmund G. ``Pat'' Brown, the Democratic governor who led California through an era bullish on growth, beat Richard Nixon and lost to Ronald Reagan, has died. He was 90.
``More than any other individual, he built modern California,'' President Clinton said Saturday.
The patriarch of California's dominant political family had been ill for some time and died at home of a heart attack Friday night, granddaughter Kathleen Kelly said. His wife, Bernice, was at his side.
Brown was the father of Jerry Brown, also a two-term governor and a three-time presidential candidate, and one-time state Treasurer Kathleen Brown, who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1994.
Presiding over the golden days of the 1960s, Brown showered a booming state with millions in public spending projects. He served eight years, from 1959 to 1967. During that time the state paved more than 1,000 miles of freeway, erected 11 universities, and started the California Water Project, a $3 billion, 475-mile-long network of reservoirs and pumping plants.
In three campaigns for governor, Brown faced the three most formidable California Republicans of his era - including two who later became president.
In 1958, Brown defeated William Knowland, then the Republican leader of the U.S. Senate and an aspirant for the 1960 Republican presidential nomination.
In 1962, Brown won a second term by defeating Nixon, prompting the loser to bitterly tell reporters, ``You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore.'' Nixon went on to win the presidency six years later. In 1966, Brown lost a bid for a third term to another future president, Reagan.
The state's population exploded under Brown's stewardship by 32 percent, to nearly 19 million people. That made California the country's most populous state.
Gov. Pete Wilson, a Republican, remembered Brown as ``formidable'' in his day.
``Pat Brown was an honest liberal - unlike many today who are at pains to disguise their true beliefs in Republican rhetoric,'' Wilson said.
Unlike his son, who questioned and sometimes discouraged growth, Pat Brown gloried in it.
He also was a major force behind enactment of state laws outlawing racial discrimination in jobs and housing. He created a consumer protection agency and backed legislation creating Medi-Cal, a health-care program for the poor.
All told, Brown served 23 years in public office, including seven as district attorney of San Francisco and eight years as the state's attorney general.
Brown married the former Bernice Layne in 1930. In addition to son Jerry and daughter Kathleen, they had two other daughters, Barbara Casey and Cynthia Kelly.
LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Brownby CNB