Walter A. Brown was born in Hopkinton, Mass and attended Boston Latin from 1922 to 1923 and Philips Exeter Academy from 1923 to 1926. After succeeding,his father, George V. Brown, as manager of the Boston Garden, he helped to found the Basketball Association of America in 1946, and was instrumental in merging the BAA and the National Basketball League into the National Basketball Association in 1949. He founded the Celtics in 1945, and helped to transform the team into a dynasty, as the Celtics won six championships in the seven years before his death. He is buried in St. John the Evangelist Cemetery in Hopkinton, Massachusetts.