Isabel Brown Wilson

Isabel Brown Wilson, the youngest daughter of Brown & Root principal George R. Brown and Alice Pratt Brown, grew up in one of Houston's fashionable neighborhoods. She studied art history at Smith College, cultivating a lifelong love of the visual arts. Together with a sister and a cousin, she made one of the largest donations in the college's history, $10 million of which underwrote an extensive renovation of the school's art museum. Her support and leadership of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston helped to make that museum the premier institution that it is today. For six years beginning in 2001, she chaired its board, a position her mother had held in the 1970s. She also served on the President's Committee for the Arts and Humanities and as president of the Philosophical Society of Texas, where she was greatly admired by the organization's two hundred members. Isabel was a trustee of The Brown Foundation, Inc., Houston, a leader in funding education, the arts, and community service initiatives.