Mark N. Brown

Colonel Mark Brown grew up in Valparaiso, IN and graduated from Purdue University in 1973 with a B.S. in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering. He also earned an M.S. in Astronautical Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology in 1980. While at Purdue, he met Lynne Anderson from River Grove, IL, and they were married in 1974. They have two daughters, Kristin and Karin, both Purdue grads who also married Boilermakers. Mark and Lynne have 4 grandchildren and celebrated their 50th anniversary in May 2024.

Mark has had a distinguished career as an Air Force fighter pilot, engineer, NASA astronaut, corporate executive, and aerospace consultant. After graduating from Purdue, he began his 20-year career with the Air Force by going to pilot training after which he flew with the 87th Fighter Interceptor Squadron in Michigan. In 1980 he earned his master’s degree and was then assigned to the NASA Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston to work as an engineer supporting the development of the space shuttle program. Mark was selected as an astronaut in 1984 and flew on two missions aboard the space shuttles Columbia in 1989 and Discovery in 1991. In addition, he was the senior astronaut on the space station program until he retired in 1993.

He then worked in the aerospace industry in Dayton, OH for an additional 20 years in ever increasing roles of corporate responsibility to include being the President and Chief Operating Officer of MTC Technologies. Mark was on the Board of Directors of the Air Force Museum Foundation in Dayton, Ohio and is currently a member of the Association of Space Explorers which is an international nonprofit professional and educational organization of over 400 astronauts and cosmonauts from 37 countries. After retiring from industry Mark worked as an aerospace consultant and speaker.