Rye civil engineer Elliot Chipman Brown served as an engineering aide to Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War I.
Brown held the role while stationed at the Naval Training Camp at Pelham Bay Park in 1918, according to a profile reported by MyRye.com in collaboration with RyeVets.org. The profile is part of a series honoring Rye veterans ahead of Veterans Day on Nov. 11.
President Woodrow Wilson appointed Roosevelt assistant secretary of the Navy in 1913, according to the FDR Presidential Library. At 31, Roosevelt was the youngest person to hold the title. He oversaw personnel, operations and contracting while Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels handled policy and Congress, according to the National Park Service.
Brown was born April 12, 1882, in New York City. He attended Pomfret School and graduated from Princeton University in 1904 with a degree in civil engineering. By 1909 he had founded the E. C. Brown Company in New York and married Elizabeth M. Hannah. The family later settled at Loudon Woods in Rye.
Navy service
Brown enrolled in the United States Naval Reserve Force on May 9, 1917, and was appointed a lieutenant in the Civil Engineer Corps. He was first assigned to the 3rd Naval District in New York, then transferred to the Naval Operating Base at Hampton Roads, Virginia. There he worked on dock facilities, ship movement and coastal defense preparations.
In February 1918, Brown transferred to the Naval Training Camp at Pelham Bay Park in New York. During that assignment he served as an aide for engineering to Roosevelt, then assistant secretary of the Navy. His work supported the Navy's Atlantic logistics and coordination with the American Expeditionary Forces.
Brown was advanced to lieutenant commander in the Naval Reserve before being placed on inactive duty on Dec. 12, 1918, at Newport, Rhode Island. His service remained stateside.
Life in Rye
Brown was a member of the Apawamis Club in Rye, the Princeton Club and the Union League Club. He and Elizabeth had four children, and the family kept homes in Rye and later Greenwich, Connecticut.
After the war, Brown returned to the E. C. Brown Company. His firm built estates and residences across the eastern United States.
He died Jan. 9, 1946, in New York City at age 63 and is buried at Greenwood Union Cemetery in Rye.
RyeVets.org has cataloged more than 2,100 veterans from the City of Rye. Residents can volunteer to research and write veteran biographies through the organization's website.
