George Hay Brown was born in February 1910 in Denver, CO, where his father was a doctor with the U.S. Army. His family moved to Detroit, MI when he was still a child and he grew up in that city. He graduated with a B.A. from Oberlin College in 1929; originally planning to follow his father into medicine, while at school he decided to pursue marketing. In 1931, he earned his M.B.A. from Harvard University.

Brown worked in marketing in the private sector until 1937, when he joined the faculty at the University of Chicago, earning his Ph.D. In 1943, he served as a consultant to the War Production Board before returning to academics. He was director of the university's Business Problems Bureau from 1950 until 1954, and developed linkages between the School of Social Science and the School of Business. At the same time, he served as a marketing consultant for several Midwestern companies, including the Chicago Tribune and General Mills.

Brown left the University of Chicago in 1954, taking a job with Ford Motor Company as a consumer research manager. At Ford, he was part of the team that planned the company's expansion into Western Europe. President Nixon appointed Brown director of the Census Bureau in July 1969 in time for the final preparations for the 1970 census.

Brown stayed on at the Census Bureau until 1973. He died in 1991 on Sea Island, Georgia. The American Marketing Association established a scholarship in his name, honoring graduate-level marketing students.