By Jim Herron Zamora
San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer
...Brown grew up in San Francisco's West Portal neighborhood and after graduating from St. Ignatius, he attended University of Santa Clara, then Jesuit seminary before leaving the seminary and getting a bachelor's degree at UC Berkeley and a law degree from Yale.
Despite being the son of a governor, Brown was elected secretary of state in 1970 as an outsider preaching the mantra of reform and change. In that office, he sued powerful oil companies for illegal campaign donations and argued a case before the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1974, Brown was elected governor, succeeding Ronald Reagan.
Brown radically changed that office as well. Some changes were cosmetic. He drove an old Plymouth around Sacramento and lived in a spartan apartment within walking distance of the Capitol -- rejecting the limousine and governor's mansion preferred by Reagan. (He still often walks to work in downtown Oakland.) He appointed more women, blacks, Latinos and Asians to state positions than all his predecessors combined. Some things he supported such as carpool lanes, solar energy, recycling and water conservation measures are no longer controversial. Others, such as his support of gay rights, remain hot-button issues three decades later...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/05/15/BAGS8IRUAS1.DTL
