George Brown, a former Colorado lieutenant governor and a graduate of Liberty Memorial High School and Kansas University, died of cancer Thursday at his Florida home. He was 79.

In 1974, Brown was elected the nation’s first black lieutenant governor. He had earlier served five consecutive terms in the Colorado Senate and was director of the Denver Housing Authority. His term as lieutenant governor was marked with some controversy because of disagreements with Colorado Gov. Richard Lamm.

Brown graduated from Lawrence’s Liberty Memorial High School in 1944, and members of the Lawrence Lions Alumni Assn. inducted him into the Hall of Honor in 2001.

“I was just stunned at how honored he was – given what all he had done,” said Marsha Goff, chairwoman of the Hall of Honor committee, about Brown’s return to Lawrence.

Before getting into politics, he served in pilot training at Tuskegee Air Force Base during World War II and received a journalism degree from KU in 1950. He then became a reporter and night city editor at The Denver Post.

He returned to KU in 2003 when he walked down Campanile Hill at commencement and was honored with a Distinguished Service Citation.

“The university was greatly privileged to honor George Brown with a Distinguished Service Citation – the university’s highest award – in 2003,” KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway said Sunday. “He was a very loyal Jayhawk over the years and certainly a force for civil rights, equality and equity in this part of the country.”

KU’s William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications created the George Brown Urban Journalism Scholarship in 1976.

By the quirk of a one-hour time difference, Brown preceded Californian Mervyn Dymally as the nation’s first black lieutenant governor, The Denver Post reported.

Missteps, though, ushered Brown out of elected politics.

In 1978, while Lamm was out of the state, Brown pardoned death-row inmate Sylvester Lee Garrison, who was convicted of pistol-whipping and killing a 79-year-old Denver man. Lamm later rescinded the pardon, although Garrison was later paroled.

Lamm later withheld part of Brown’s salary because because the lieutenant governor overspent part of his budget.

Brown left office in 1979 and joined the Grumman Corp. as vice president for marketing and later became the company’s chief lobbyist in Washington, D.C. He retired to Florida in 1996 with his wife, Modeen.

His sister, Harriet Baskerville, and several other relatives still live in Lawrence.

A memorial will be Friday in Boca Raton, Fla.