Jerry Brown

American politician and noted family, born into politics as the son of Governor Pat Brown. He is considered one of the most exciting and controversial leaders of his generation. After four years of Jesuit training, he went to Berkeley and Yale Law schools. From school, Brown entered a Los Angeles law firm and, as a natural progression, went into politics. His first position was in 1969 on the Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees, a low rung of the ladder. He went on to become Secretary of State in 1970 and, from 1974, a two-term Governor of California. His political career also included runs for President in 1976 and 1980 and in 1992, a third failed bid for the Democratic Presidential nomination.

Brown retreated from political life in January 1983 after a 1982 defeat in a run for the U.S. Senate. During the next six years, he traveled and studied. He worked on a political journal called "New Perspectives" and raised money for the Democrats. He also spent several months in Mexico, and visited China and the Soviet Union. After two years, he decided to explore more inner and outer dimensions. He traveled to Japan where he lived in tradition style and studied Zen meditation with an 80-year-old Buddhist teacher. He then visited Mother Teresa in India and, representing CARE, visited Bangladesh as a special envoy.

He learned fundamentally just how prosperous and powerful America really is, as well as how strong people become under adverse conditions. He found an indomitable will to overcome obstacles in the Third World countries, reflective of human courage at its best.

In 1989 he returned to the fray as a candidate for chairman of the California Democratic Party. Known as a workaholic, his public presentation is awkward with wooden carriage and no place to put his hands. He speaks spontaneously with no teleprompter or index reminder cards and no speech-writer to craft his words.