Louis Franklin Brown joined the staff at the University of Iowa in 1959 as assistant educator and psychologist in the Center for the Mentally Retarded. Ten years later, the department was renamed Special Education. Brown was named assistant professor in Education and principal of the Hospital School in 1964. He served as associate professor of Special Education from 1968 until his retirement in 1988.

According to Epsilon Bulletin, Vol. 39, 1965, Brown taught in several Iowa school systems prior to coming to the University of Iowa, and he was assistant professor at Bowling Green State University from 1963 to 1965.

In 1950, Brown received his B. A. degree from Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and his Ph. D. at the State University of Iowa in 1961. His dissertation was titled "A comparison of educational attainment between mentally retarded children in a school district operating adequate special classes and mentally retarded children in a school district with insufficient special classes."

Louis Brown and his wife, Betty A Brown, lived in Iowa City, Iowa. Louis Brown died January 26, 2002, at age 79.