Jim Brown was born in Oklahoma City, in October 1953. He attended elementary and middle schools around the country, including two years at Miami Military Academy, before his family moved to the Northern Virginia area in 1968. His first three high school years were at Francis C. Hammond High School in Alexandria, where he was active in football, wrestling, and school orchestra.

Just prior to the 1971 football season, Jim was also active in the Northern Virginia Youth Symphony Orchestra, and traveled with that group to Lausanne, Switzerland where the orchestra competed successfully with other international youth orchestras. By the time he returned, football team practices had already begun. Still yearning to play football, he sought out Coach Paul Hines who put him on the 1971 TC Williams team.

During the 1971-72 season, Jim spent almost equal time between football and music, as he continued his athletic activities and music studies at TC Williams. During his senior year he decided to pursue a career in music rather than sports. He applied and was accepted to the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor, in the fall of 1972.

Graduating in 1976, Jim worked in the Ann Arbor area for several years where he met and married Cheryl Olschansky in 1979. He became active in the computer industry in 1980 and worked in a variety of industry positions while raising a family of four children with Cheryl.

He now works for a computer networking firm in New York, NY.