Julius "Zeke" Brown was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on August 21, 1915. Although the attending doctor wrote the name Julius on his birth certificate, he was known to his family by his Jewish name, Zissel, which army friends would later shorten to Zeke. His parents ran a small grocery store; Zeke and his older brother Milton had a happy childhood. In the summers, he said, they practically lived in their swimming suits, although swimming in Sheepshead Bay involved pushing debris away with every stroke. He attended the City College of New York, majoring in physics. When World War II arrived, he enlisted in the Army Air Force. He was trained as an anti-radar operator, a training that included graduate studies at both M.I.T. and Harvard. The practical part of the training brought him to Scott Field, where he met Norma Joseph; they were married on D-Day, June 6, 1944.

He was assigned to the B-29 squadron that mounted the first air attack on mainland Japan after the Doolittle Raid. The initial sorties, conducted in daylight and without fighter support, were devastating -- as many as a third of the planes were lost on a single flight. After the mode of attack was reconfigured by Curtis Lemay, missions became more effective, though still extremely hazardous. Zeke was once bumped from his usual lead plane by a visiting dignitary. That plane was lost, and for years he kept the manifest that listed him as killed in action. For his service, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross with one oak leaf clusters and the Air Medal with four oak leaf clusters.

After the war, he and Norma settled into a small apartment in Manhattan, and he took a job in the electronics industry. They were regulars at the Café Society Downtown, where they became friends with some of the jazz and folk artists of the day. Zeke's refusal to sign a loyalty oath during the notorious McCarthy era led to their re-locating to O'Fallon, where they moved to a farm north of town. At that time he completed a Master's Degree at St. Louis University, and then began teaching there. Later, he completed a doctorate in Electrical Engineering at Washington University and was asked to head a new E.E. department at SIUE, where he remained until his retirement.

Although a dreadful singer (a grade school teacher assigned him the role of "listening tenor"), he loved to listen to music. His tastes were wide-ranging, but his particular favorites were some of the most complex and pure of compositions: Beethoven's string quartets. He was, until almost the very end, a voracious reader. A son-in-law called him "the single-most educated person I've ever met." He served on the O'Fallon grade school board, and for many years volunteered at the St. Louis Science Center.

He is survived by his three children: Stephen and Sally, of O'Fallon, and Lisa, of Seattle, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. He was fortunate, in his last, declining years, to have excellent caregivers, principally Trina Zarif, who cared for him at his home (which many still know as "The Buffalo Farm") until his death.

In lieu of flowers, he would have appreciated contributions to Greenpeace, The Fund for Animals, or the Memory Diagnostic Center in St. Louis.

Friends and family are invited to a reception in his honor at his son Steve's house, 3:00 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012.