Bridge Engineering Feat, Sen. Brown's Work To Be Celebrated
By Karen Gould

Senator Prentiss M. Brown stands near the toll plaza area as snow blows across the deck of the Mackinac Bridge November 1, 1958, one year after the bridge opened to traffic. (Mackinac Bridge Authority photograph)

Prentiss M. Brown was a U.S. Senator, Congressman, Mackinac County Prosecuting Attorney, St. Ignace City Attorney, chairman of Detroit Edison Company, director of the Office of Price Administration under President Franklin Roosevelt, and first chairman of the Mackinac Bridge Authority. He also was an Arnold Transit deckhand, Grand Hotel bellhop, and a reporter.

In September, he was honored by the State Bar of Michigan as the 32nd Michigan Legal Milestone, and a bronze plaque will be dedicated at the Bridge View Park building in St. Ignace Thursday, November 1, as part of the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Mackinac Bridge. Ceremonies begin at 12:30 p.m. and are open to the public.

The plaque recognizes Senator Brown's work and the many obstacles that were overcome under his guidance, and focuses on his leadership in building the Mackinac Bridge.

The Michigan Bar Association has honored 31 other important people, cases, and events that have influenced the state's legal history, including President Gerald Ford. On Mackinac Island, a marker outside the courthouse on Market Street recognizes the famous Pond's Defense, authored by Michigan Supreme Court Justice James Campbell, in which he ruled that a man's home is his castle.

Speaking at the State Bar's annual meeting in Grand Rapids September 28, where Senator Brown was recognized, were his son, Prentiss "Moie" Brown, Jr. of St. Ignace, and granddaughter, Barbara Brown of Lansing and St. Ignace.

"He grew up in St. Ignace at the dawn of the 20th century and often gazed south across the Straits, a daunting stretch of cold, deep water," reads the plaque. "He could not know then that despite a life of achievement placing him among Michigan's most distinguished citizens, he would best be remembered as the Father of the Mackinac Bridge."

The text on the plaque also recalls when Mr. Brown, as the Mackinac County prosecuting attorney, was thwarted one winter in is efforts to cross the frozen Straits of Mackinac by ferry to reach a Michigan Supreme Court hearing. He walked across the ice, but missed the hearing. He was thereafter determined to overcome the negative opinions regarding the feasibility of a bridge.

"That bitter hike across the Straits made a lasting impression on me," he later recalled, "for the need of a bridge across the Straits."

"He knew the problems confronting the project, and with the help of many wonderful people that the Bridge Authority put together, it became a reality in 1957," said Senator Brown's son, Prentiss Jr. at the State Bar ceremony. "It was completed within the estimated time and within the estimated financial budget. It is wonderful that he had 16 years thereafter to enjoy the Mackinac Bridge and its remarkable impact and economic service to all in this state and county."

Political and financial objections about the bridge, however, were not the most difficult challenges his father faced in the Senate, Mr. Brown noted. The event most damaging to his career came in 1942 when Senator Brown was assigned to write and push through the Price Control Act to regulate prices during World War II.

"You can imagine the opposition and lobbyists he faced from the farmers and commercial businesses when the proposal to freeze prices and ration commodities was proposed," said Mr. Brown. "It had to be done, and he did it, which many say preserved the business stability for everyone during and after the war. By doing it, so the Detroit News reported, 'He kissed away his political future to serve the people, who elected him.'"

"Difficulty was no deterrent to Prentiss Brown," noted his granddaughter, Barbara Brown. "He was a true public servant and a selfless politician of highest principles, who also possessed the discipline and confidence to live by those principles throughout his life."