Army Engineer Gerald 'Jed' Curtis Brown, 63

Gerald "Jed" Curtis Brown, 63, a career Army officer and a former commander of the Baltimore District Corps of Engineers, died of complications from cancer July 28 at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. He lived in Falls Church.

While with the Baltimore district in the early 1980s, Brig. Gen. Brown was responsible for the supervision and maintenance of the Washington Aqueduct, which supplies drinking water to Washington and nearby suburbs. He also managed the operation of facilities that included the Old Soldiers' Home, Walter Reed and Harry Diamond Laboratories.

During his military career, he testified before Congress and worked extensively with the Environmental Protection Agency, the Justice Department, the Interior Department and the Federal Highway Administration.

At the Pentagon from 1992 to 1994, Gen. Brown managed the Army's $2 billion program for environmental oversight and cleanup at installations around the world.

After his retirement from the Army in 1994, he was a vice president and manager of Sverdrup Corp. (now Jacobs Engineering Group Inc.) in its Baltimore office and later worked for Parsons Brinckerhoff Inc. In 2001, he became associate director of operations support at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Chicago.

He was born in Worcester, Mass., and grew up in New Sharon, Maine. He entered the U.S. Military Academy at 17 and graduated in 1964. That year, he was commissioned an officer in the Corps of Engineers, married and headed off to Army airborne and Ranger schools.

His initial assignments were as platoon leader, battalion staff officer and company commander in Munich. He also served a combat tour with the 27th Engineer Battalion in Vietnam. In 1967, he received a master's degree in civil engineering from the University of Illinois, then served a second combat tour in Vietnam with the 1st Cavalry Division.

He served twice in Germany, where he saw the Berlin Wall go up and was there shortly after the wall came down. He also taught military history at West Point.

Gen. Brown headed up the establishment of the William R. Murden Memorial, in honor of the engineer responsible for creating the Poplar Island bird sanctuary, made of dredged material, in the Chesapeake Bay.

He also guided the revamping of the Society of American Military Engineers fellows program, serving as the first chairman of the program from 1995 to 1996 and as North Atlantic regional vice president from 1988 to 1990.

His marriage to Adelaide "Ann" Brown ended in divorce.

Survivors include his wife, Jean Jennings Brown, whom he married in 1998, of Falls Church; two daughters from his first marriage, Deborah Brown of St. Paul, Minn., and Suzanne Brown of Perth, Australia; five sisters; and three brothers.