Norton to Annapolis to Honor Dedication of Field House Named for Wesley A. Brown (5/9/08)

Norton to Annapolis to Honor Dedication of Field House Named for D.C. Resident Wesley A. Brown

May 9, 2008

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton will speak tonight at a banquet honoring Lt. Cdr. Wesley A. Brown (USN Ret.) as the U.S. Naval Academy prepares to dedicate its new field house (gymnasium), which bears his name. Norton will travel to Annapolis to honor Lt. Cdr. Brown, who continues to live in the District of Columbia. She will speak of national and local pride in Brown‘s accomplishments, not only as the first of his race to graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy, but as she says "for the life he has lived ever since."

Brown attended Dunbar Senior High School and graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy as an engineer in 1949, the first in his family to attend college. Upon his retirement after 20 years of service as a naval officer, Norton said, "He couldn't stop serving." Lt. Cdr. Brown served as Chair of her predecessor's Service Academy Selection Board, and, since 1991, as Chair and Chair Emeritus of her board.