About the Scholarship
The General John M. Brown and Alice Foster Scholarship was created by U.S. Army (Retired) General John M. Brown on behalf of The Brown Family Marital Trust A. The General John M. Brown and Alice Foster Scholarship is designed to assist one graduating senior from each of Vicksburg High School and Warren Central High School in their college endeavors by awarding them $2,000 to be applied towards college tuition, room and board or other college expenses.
Major General (MG) John M. “Mike” Brown was born in Vicksburg, MS to Fred and Ernestine Brown, and lived with his grandmother Alice Foster. He attended several schools in Vicksburg before moving to San Francisco, CA, at the age of 15 due to the threat of imminent bodily harm because of local racism, living with his Uncle William and working multiple small jobs while in school to support his family in Vicksburg.
A model student who was a member of the Silver Seals Society and the National Honor Society, he graduated from Lincoln High School in Missouri in 1949 and entered the United States Military Academy at West Point in May 1951, graduating in May 1955, with a commission as a second lieutenant in the Infantry.
His military assignments include battalion command in Germany; a combat tour in Vietnam during the Vietnam War; several assignments in Korea, including brigade command, Deputy Chief of Staff, Comptroller for 8th Army, and Assistant Division Commander for 2nd Infantry Division; Deputy Chief of Staff, Resource Management for the U.S. Army Forces Command (Atlanta, GA), several assignments on the Army Staff (Pentagon), and Deputy Commanding General of III Corps and Fort Hood, his final assignment from which he retired in March 1988 as a major general.
His awards and decorations include the Distinguished Service Medal, Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit, and Bronze Star.
MG Brown holds a bachelor’s degree in Engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point and a master’s degree in Business Administration from Syracuse University. He is a graduate of the Infantry Officer’s Basic and Advanced Courses, the Army Command and Staff College, and the Industrial College of the Armed Forces.
Since his retirement in 1988, he has remained active. He has served as a real estate broker for Long and Foster Real Estate and served on the board of directors of First Virginia Bank of Maryland and Farmer’s Bank of Maryland. He has also performed numerous studies for the U.S. Department of Defense and private corporations, as well as a management study of the Singapore military/government headquarters as President of Michael Brown Analytics.
He was married to the late Louise D. Brown, and has four children (Ronald. Jan, John Jr., and Jay), six grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren.
Alice Foster was born Alice Emerson in Meridian, MS in 1887. She moved to Vicksburg, MS at an early age. She married John Foster in 1905. Alice and John had four children: William, John, Bennie, and Ernestine. As a girl growing up, Alice often fantasized about the world she lived in, “Things must be better than the world she lived in”. Alice’s philosophy was that despite the lack of opportunity, a person must strive harder to achieve. She saw no easy way, and was a strict disciplinarian, at one point her three oldest children had run away. She was determined to have her grandchildren “become somebody”. She exhibited this desire to live in products she raised in her garden and poultry that she raised while unemployed, and at times housed her daughter and son-in-law, her sister, and her grandson “Mike” and his 5 younger siblings. Alice died in 1955.