Daniel “Dan” Patrick Brown, a professor at Northwestern University, entrepreneur and inventor, unexpectedly died the evening of Sept. 15. He was 70.
Born on July 25, 1956 in Oak Lawn, he was the oldest of four siblings. He attended Richards High School in Oak Lawn and went on to become a lifelong learner.
Among the products he was involved with were the award-winning Bionic Wrench, and at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, InstaShield personal protective equipment.
Brown earned his bachelor’s degree from Saint Xavier University in 1974 and a master’s degree from Northwestern University in product design and development management.
He was a business manager at InstaFoam from 1985 to 1990, and in 1991, founded Consul-Tech, his design and tech consultancy.
In 2005, he founded Loggerhead Tools, a tool manufacturing company that launched the Bionic Wrench. The tool is a hybrid of an adjustable wrench that went on to win ten international design awards and sell over three million units.
Brown worked closely with his son, Daniel Patrick Brown III, and they attended many business conferences together. He described his father as “a great dad” who pushed him and his sister to work hard and was always there for them.
“We always knew we could rely on him no matter what, and I liked to believe that he knew I was always there for him too,” Brown III said.
Brown first became a professor at Northwestern University in 2006. Three years later, he joined Northwestern University’s Segal Design Institute faculty. He championed the concept of “differentiation by design,” a term he used to describe his design process that emphasized working smarter, not harder.
In his class of the same name, he discussed how he created the Bionic Wrench, from the idea’s conception to designing the actual product.
Brown III said when he was in kindergarten, he and his classmates had to explain what their parents do for work. He said he didn’t know how to explain what his dad did for work, so he asked him what he should tell his class.
“He said, ‘Tell them that I’m a problem solver.’ I loved that answer then, I love it even more now because that was exactly who he was,” Brown III said. “Looking back, he was teaching me long before I realized it. He was sharing the way to solve the world.”
A curious man, according to his son, Brown went back to school in 2012 and pursue his doctorate in design theory and product design at Coventry University. His research question asked how does design create new value and competitive advantage in business marketplaces.
In 2020, he founded co-founded InstaShield USA with his son in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The company manufactures protective face shields, according to the company’s website.
That same year, he was elected a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors and served on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Patent Public Advisory Committee until 2025.
Brown was an advocate for inventors’ rights and held more than 40 U.S. utility patents along with numerous international patents. He also received many design and innovation honors throughout his career.
“You knew you were in a room with an innovator, like a Walt Disney or Nikola Tesla. He could go between academics and mechanics like lightning, from the boardroom to the factory floor like taking a dip in a pool,” said Stephanie Pyrzynski, a mentee of Brown’s who worked closely with him.
Pyrzynski said Brown gave her and her husband, Geoffrey, their first big break in their digital marketing careers. The digital agency they founded was contracted for video production and editing for Loggerhead Tools television infomercials. Both she and her husband attended school with Brown III at University of Illinois at Chicago.
More than being an inventor, Pyrzynski said Brown was also a family man.
“At the end of the day, he was always with his family. He knew what was important in life,” Pyrzynski said.
Brown raised his family in Palos Park. He frequently commuted to Evanston before moving there and had recently bought a house in Northbrook.
Brown III said his dad cared deeply about helping others, was the life of the party and an overall joy to be around. He had a great sense of humor and was an avid storyteller who never let the truth get in the way of a good story.
He will always remember their fishing trips up north and late nights at Windy City Smokeout, but most importantly, their friendship and business partnership.
Brown spent his last day around good company, watching a Chicago Bears game at his son’s house in Kildeer. He is survived by his siblings, his partner, Marina Nisenboim, and her two children, his own two children and three grandchildren.
A service was held at Alice Millar Chapel at Northwestern University.
etittel@chicagotribune.com
