John Brown Returning to Give Gaddis Lecture

• EMILY KESEL
• 07 OCTOBER 2019

From going viral with a rant about the Kardashian family to inventing a popular item for competitive runners, Central Methodist University alum John Brown has done it all.

Well, almost. He hasn’t yet given the Merrill E. Gaddis Lecture at CMU.

But that will change on October 10, as Brown will return to his alma mater to deliver the annual speech, sponsored by the CMU Kappa Chapter of Pi Gamma Mu. The social sciences honor society was established in 1935 by Dr. Merrill Gaddis (1891-1958), professor of history and later chair of the History and Political Science Department. Gaddis served at CMU – then Central Methodist College – for nearly 30 years. Students, staff, and visitors from the area are invited to attend the free event in his name, which will feature a question and answer session after the speech.

Brown’s lecture is entitled “Life Lessons from Interviewing the Most Successful People in the World,” and will revolve around what he’s learned from 25 years of speaking to the country’s most notable newsmakers. Throughout his career, Brown has interviewed influential people and celebrities such as John Legend, Jesse Jackson, Kevin Bacon, Wendy Williams, Mike Pence, and many others.

A 1994 graduate of Central, Brown is now a nationally recognized television journalist, public speaker, radio talk show host, author, and inventor. He is currently employed with KTVI, Tribune Broadcasting’s St. Louis Fox affiliate, where he returned after spending five years as a host of Good Day Orlando on Fox 35.

Brown’s radio broadcast career began in 1995 at WQAM in Miami, Fla. He then relocated to State College, Pa. in 1999, where he was part of Central Pennsylvania’s number one rated morning show on WZWW. Later that same year, he returned to Missouri to work his first TV job at KSPR in Springfield. There, he served as the morning show anchor of The Morning Scoop before being promoted to news anchor in 2003.

In 2004, he arrived in Orlando for the first of two stints, this time on the nationally syndicated show, The Daily Buzz. He then came back to Missouri to work at KTVI Fox 2 in St. Louis to anchor the 6 and 9 p.m. newscasts, to mediate the station’s weekly political program, and to host the John Brown’s Mindset talk radio show. Shortly after, he moved back to Florida to co-anchor Good Day Orlando, before once again returning to St. Louis in 2016.

In addition to his broadcast career, Brown has found success as the inventor of Bib Magnets, for which he saw a need as an active and competitive distance runner. He is also the author of several books inspired by his travels across Missouri in his youth, including Missouri Legends: Famous People from the Show Me State, The Ultimate Missouri Trivia Book, and The Missouri Almanac, 2018-2019.

During Brown’s time at CMU, he was a member of the basketball and golf teams and published his undergraduate cancer-related research, “Detection of Mutagenic Capability of EMF’s Using the Ames Test,” in the Missouri Academy of Science.

He was named one of CMU’s Outstanding Young Alumni in 2004 and served for several years on the Alumni Board of Directors.

Brown currently resides in St. Louis with his wife and two daughters. The lecture is set to begin at 7 p.m. on the fourth floor of Inman Student Center.