David G. Brown holds a U.S. Coast Guard Master's License, 100 Gross Tons, with Commercial Assistance Towing and Auxiliary Sail endorsements. He has served as the captain of a high-speed ferry serving the Lake Erie islands from Port Clinton, Ohio. Brown is an instructor for North Coast Marine Services, a firm specializing in safety risk assessment, crew training and license instruction. He has also been employed as a boatbuilder and repairer, and for 17 years was a television news producer, writing and producing more than 1,500 hours of news/documentary scripts and receiving an Emmy award for his coverage of the Agent Orange story in 1979.