Roy Brown was born in Killarney, Manitoba on November 14, 1906 to Howard and Frances Brown. Raised and educated in Killarney, Roy spent three years in the Ninette Sanatorium during the 1930s due to illness. In 1940 he married Elsie May Wood, with whom he had one son, Roy Wayne. A man of diverse talents, Roy was an author, a musician, and inventor, a patent broker, an invention consultant, a TV and radio host, a composer, a tourism promoter and a historian. Roy's interest in steamboats led to the location and recovery of the Empress of Ireland and the S.S. Alpha. He was also a driving force in the creation of the Assiniboine Historical Society, the Grand Valley Days Pageant and the Fort Brandon Museum Committee. In 1971 Roy received both the Good Citizenship award from the Lt. Governor of Manitoba and for his steamboat research the Margaret McWilliams bronze medal from the Historical Society of Manitoba. He received a second bronze medal in 1974 for the Fort Brandon Story. Roy Brown passed away on March 11, 1985.