William "Bill" Hooker Brow, born 1937, worked for the University of Kansas as adjunct faculty in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, as in-country Director of the Study Abroad program in Costa Rica [Grupo de Kansas at the Universidad de Costa Rica], in 1976 and again in 1981. His doctorate was in Contemporary Portuguese Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also worked on several translation projects, including "One Day of Life," by Manlio Argueta, first published in 1983. A translation of a book by Augusto Boal did not make it to publication.

As a child, Brow worked as an actor, including a brief scene in the 1943 movie, "Hitler's Children," credited to "Billy Brow."

Bill Brow's wife Ellen worked at KU Libraries from 1975 through 1983 as Latin American bibliographer until leaving to take a similar position at Harvard. Together, William and Ellen Brow had three children: Larry, Judy, and Marta.