Stanford Brown was born on March 4, 1970, at the Medical Center in Columbus, Georgia, the son of Harold Searcy Brown and Mary Sylvia Maxwell Brown of Howard, Georgia. On both paternal and maternal sides, Stan is descended from pioneering families of Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia, including early settlers of Talbot and Taylor counties in Georgia.
Stan was educated in Taylor County, Georgia, public schools, graduating from Taylor County High School in 1988. He continued his education at Duke University, graduating cum laude with a B.A. in history in 1992. He then went to the University of Georgia, completing an M.A. in history in 1994, writing his thesis on the desegregation of schools in Taylor and Baker counties.
Stan taught history and government at Central High School in Macon from 1995 to 2013. In those years, he taught Advanced Placement United States History and International Baccalaureate History, including both History of the Americas and Twentieth Century World History Topics. Stan was the Bibb County Gifted Teacher of the Year once and the Bibb County STAR teacher three times, once becoming the Georgia STAR teacher. After leaving Central in 2013, Stan did further graduate work in history at Georgia College & State University and Auburn University and taught as a part-time instructor at Columbus State University.
Stan is an active member of Wesley United Methodist Church on the Taylor County Circuit. He was an active member of the Howard United Methodist Church from the age of ten until that church disaffiliated from the United Methodist Church, at which time he transferred his membership to Wesley. He taught Sunday school for some years and served as the delegate from first the Howard Charge and then from the Taylor County Circuit to the South Georgia Annual Conference for 25 years. He also serves on the board of the Columbus State University Wesley Foundation and on the Georgia United Methodist Commission on Higher Education and Campus Ministry. He also serves on the board of trustees of Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia.
Stan is the co-author of Fall Line County: A History of Taylor County, Georgia (2024). He is a collector of historical documents and rare books, particularly items related to Georgia. He has given numerous books and documents to the collections of the University of Georgia, Wesleyan College, Duke University, Georgia College & State University, the Atlanta History Center, and the Georgia Historical Society.
Stan established the Stanford Maxwell Brown Fund at the Georgia Historical Society in 2026, ensuring that his commitment to Georgia history will continue in perpetuity.