OUR COMPOSERS
Father Joseph E. Brown, S.J.
Born in Parsons, Kansas, on March 14, 1924, Father Joseph E. brown, S.J.,entered the Society of Jesus at St. Stanislaus Seminary in Florissant, Missouri, on February 4, 1943, and was ordained on June 18, 1956, at St. Mary’s College in Kansas.
After ordination and tertianship, Joe completed a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. After doctoral studies, in 1965, he accepted a joint appointment with the School of Medicine and the School of Arts and Sciences at Saint Louis University, working as a clinical psychologist at the Wohl Mental Health Institute and teaching courses for the Department of Psychology. He served as a psychologist and a professor at SLU until his retirement in 2001.
During the 1960s and early 1970s, Joe provided an invaluable service to the Missouri Province in conducting psychological evaluations of candidates for the Society of Jesus. He also provided counseling services and spiritual direction to fellow Jesuits throughout his life. In 1967 Joe founded the We & God Spirituality Center, which distributed resources on prayer and spirituality written by a number of Jesuit authors. Included among those resources was a contemporary reading of the psalms written by Joe, entitled Jesus Sings the Psalms in Your Heart. The ministry of the We & God Spirituality Center continued for over 30 years.
Throughout the later years of his life at Jesuit Hall and the Fusz Pavilion, Joe continued to offer encouragement and support to fellow Jesuits, old and young alike.
Joe died November 14, 2010, at the Fusz Pavilion in St. Louis, Missouri. He was 86 years old and a Jesuit for 67 years. Preceded in death by his brothers James, Melvin, and Vincent and his sisters, Fidelis Murphy, Ernestine Raymond, and Mildred Cox, Joe is survived by a number of nieces and nephews.