William Likens Brown IV, 91, of Pine Grove Mills

William Likens Brown IV, 91, of Pine Grove Mills, died Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2003, at The Fairways at Brookline Village.

He was a resident of Salem Hill Haven in Spring Mills from April 2002 to Jan. 1. He was a resident of Ferguson Township since 1950 and, before that, lived in Philadelphia.

Born May 30, 1911, in Elkins Park, Montgomery County, he was a son of the late William Likens Brown III and Grace Emma Herbert Brown.

On Sept. 14, 1940, he married Dorothy Margaret Craven, who survives.

He was a 1932 graduate of Frankford High School in Philadelphia. He studied mechanical engineering at the Pennsylvania State College for the next two years.

A pioneer in model-aircraft aviation, he built the first practical gasoline-powered model aircraft engine in 1930, while he was attending high school. One of his early engines powered The Miss Philadelphia III, a model plane designed by his close friend, Maxwell Bassert, at the 1933 National Championship Model Plane Meet, held at Roosevelt Field on Long Island. The small plane remained aloft for a record 28 minutes. The model aircraft powered by the Brown gasoline engine went on to sweep every major category in the competition, revolutionizing a sport in which models had been powered by rubber bands.

The Junior Motors Corp. of Philadelphia, co-founded by his father, manufactured the gasoline engines from 1934 to 1940. He later created Campus Industries to achieve his dream of developing a carbon-dioxide engine. In 1942-43, he designed and built the first successful carbon-dioxide-powered engine for small model aircraft. In 1950, Campus Industries (later Micro-Tol) relocated to Pine Grove Mills. The current Brown Junior Motors Inc. was established in 1968 to manufacture carbon-dioxide engines. Throughout the next several decades, he refined the engines. In 1994, he created the world's smallest single-cylinder reciprocating carbon-dioxide engine.

He received numerous awards and accolades for his work. Several of his early engines are included in the collections of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington and the Deutsches Museum in Munich, Germany. In 1974, he was elected to the Academy of Model Aeronautics Model Aviation Hall of Fame, and to the Free Flight Hall of Fame of the National Free Flight Society in 1979. He was recognized internationally for his achievements and, in 1991, was invited to celebrate his 80th birthday at an International Model Meet in Spitzerberg, Austria.

He was passionate about the field of model aviation and encouraged young people to develop an interest in it. He enjoyed demonstrating his engines at the Centre Region Parks and Recreation's annual Delta Dart competition and always donated one of his engines as the grand prize. He was a visionary who hoped someday to build a park for model enthusiasts and an aerodome in which to fly model planes.

A master machinist, he was employed during his early years at Leeds and Northrup and the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia and the Ordnance Research Laboratory (now the Applied Research Laboratory).

He built the wind tunnel balance for the mechanical engineering department at Penn State.

He was a member of the University Baptist and Brethren Church in State College, serving as a deacon. He was also an active member of the Gideons International and a life member of the Society of Antique Modelers. He was a flutist in the Penn State Symphony Orchestra and was also an amateur stone mason. He loved riding his Indian motorcycle in his early years and piloting both glider and power planes in his later years.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by three sons, William L. Brown V, of New York, Richard S. and his wife, Lynda S. Brown, of Spring Mills, and David H. and his wife, Virginia D. Brown, of State College; a brother, Frederick Herbert Brown, of Exton; and three grandsons, Matthew R. Brown, Nathan C. Brown and Ryan D. Brown, all of Spring Mills;

In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by a sister, Louise Brown Stonehill, who died in 1977, and a granddaughter, Emily Grace Brown, who died in 1992.

A celebration of life will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 18, 2003, at the University Baptist and Brethren Church, 411 S. Burrowes St., State College, with the Revs. Bonnie K. Smeltzer, his pastor, and Glenn H. Mitchell, former pastor of the church, officiating.

Inurnment will be in George Washington Memorial Park, Plymouth Meeting, Montgomery County.

Memorial contributions may be made to University Baptist and Brethren Church, 411 S. Burrowes St., State College, PA 16801 or to Gideons International in care of Jim Miller, P.O. Box 89, Pine Grove Mills, PA 16868.

Arrangements are under the direction of James L. Schwartz Home for Funerals, 247 Chestnut St., Mifflinburg.