Charles Reynolds Brown was an American Congregational clergyman and educator, born in Bethany, West Virginia. He graduated at the University of Iowa in 1883 and studied theology in Boston University. He lectured at various times at Leland Stanford, Yale, Cornell, and Columbia universities, and was pastor of the First Congregational Church at Oakland, California, from 1896 to 1911. In the latter year he became dean of the Yale Divinity School.