Norman K. Brown facts for kids

Norman K. Brown (born around 1936) is an American who has helped count people for the United States Census. He is famous for working on seven censuses in a row! This means he helped with the national count every ten years, starting in 1960.

A Long Career in Counting People

Norman K. Brown began his work with the United States Census Bureau in 1960. He was 24 years old at the time. Every ten years after that, he returned to help with the census. His last census was in 2020, when he was 84 years old.

Starting His Census Journey

Norman was born in New York. He studied chemistry at the University of Rochester. In 1960, he moved to San Francisco. He was looking for part-time work. He applied to be an enumerator for the Census Bureau. An enumerator is someone who collects information for the census. He worked in the Nob Hill area of San Francisco for six weeks.

After his first census job, Norman worked for the Mayor of San Francisco. He wrote grants, which are requests for money for projects. But he always came back to help with the U.S. census every ten years.

"Mr. Census" and His Many Roles

Over the years, Norman held many different temporary jobs with the Census Bureau. He was a partnership assistant, a crew leader, and a field manager. He also worked as an office supervisor. During the 2020 census, he helped with supplies and recruiting. He was 84 years old then.

Besides the main census every ten years, Norman also helped with a test in 1995. This test helped prepare for the 2000 census. Because of his long history, people sometimes called him "Mr. Census."

Life Beyond the Census

Between his census jobs, Norman had many other interesting careers. He was a photographer for a newspaper called the San Francisco Sun-Reporter. He also worked as a reporter for United Press International. He managed apartments and was a film projectionist. He even built cabinets and worked as a sales clerk at Sears.

From 1964 to 1982, he managed a youth jobs program in San Francisco. He took time off from this job to work on the 1970 and 1980 censuses.

Family Life

Norman K. Brown is married. He and his wife have ten children.