NC State’s Marshall Brain, founder of How Stuff Works, remembered for insatiable curiosity
Marshall Brain, educator and founder of the popular edutainment company HowStuffWorks, died last week at the age of 63.
Born in California, Brain moved to Raleigh in the 1980s to complete a master’s degree in computer science at NC State. There he met his wife, Leigh Ann, and together, they raised four children in the Triangle. Brain taught in the NC State computer science department until 1992, when he founded a software company called Interface Technologies.
Yet his biggest career achievement began with a hobby.
In the 1990s, Brain created a website with Leigh Ann where he posted layman-friendly scientific explanations of how basic gadgets functioned. Early entries included research on VCRs, airplanes and car engines. This project began HowStuffWorks.com, which, for a time, was one of the 1,000-most visited websites in the world. It grew to 10,000 visitors a day in 1998 and then 33,000 by early 2000.
“People get on the site, and they can finally understand the technology all around them,” Brain told The News & Observer in 1999. “And they can realize that it’s fairly simple at its core. It’s pretty comforting and reassuring to know that they can understand it all.”
By the early 2000s, his hobby was a major brand with 20 employees. In addition to the website, the company published a free Stuff Works magazine (supported by advertisers) that went out to 10,000 schools.
In 2002, he sold his company to the investment firm Convex Group. Five years later, Discovery Communications bought the brand for $250 million.
Brain continued to work in education media. In 2006, he appeared on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” to explain how television worked. And for two seasons, he made a series for The National Geographic Channel called “Factory Floor,” which showed the behind-the-scenes manufacturing of everyday items.
In newspaper profiles, reporters noted Brain’s last name matched his intellect. He authored more than a dozen books and contributed articles to The N&O on a range of topics like dividends and humidifiers.
In 2012, he returned to N.C. State to lead the university’s Engineering Entrepreneurs Program, where he directed his robust curiosity to help them launch startups.
“Anytime I had an issue, he would sit down with me for hours and just write, write, write in his iPad,” said Brandon Kashani, a former program participant. “Then he would go home and at night, send me an email with a million suggestions and scenarios and different things when he had time to digest it.”
Other students-turned-entrepreneurs echoed Kashani’s view of their mentor.
“A lot of people I would tell about my business, and they said, ‘Oh, it’s a cool idea,’” said Kevin Barry, who founded the startup FilterEasy as an NC State undergraduate. “But Marshall is one of the people who would dive in and ask you every question and every problem and help you work towards solutions.”
Brain was found dead in his NC State office on the morning of Nov. 20 after campus police responded to a welfare check request. His death certificate, reviewed by The N&O, stated the cause of death as suicide.
His relationship with the university appeared to have deteriorated in recent months, according to an email Brain sent colleagues on the morning of his death.
“If you are receiving this email, you are a friend and colleague of mine,” he wrote at 4:29 a.m. on Nov. 20. “Today I would like to ask for a few minutes of your time so that I can tell you a story.”
The email, obtained by The N&O, contained internal NC State emails as well as a timeline of grievances with multiple university department heads.
The university declined to comment on Brain’s claims. A Nov. 6 internal email from Stephen Markham, executive director of NC State Innovation and Entrepreneurship, announced that he had “accepted Marshall’s letter of retirement that will be effective Dec. 31, 2025.”
“Few people volunteer as much time and energy as Marshall,” Markham wrote. “His keen insights and fun approach to entrepreneurship will be sorely missed.”
But Brain claimed the university was forcing him to leave his position. In a Nov. 7 email to colleagues, he wrote, “The fact is that I am not ‘retiring.’”
The NC State student newspaper Technician was first to report on Brain’s email and university complaints.
This story was originally published November 27, 2024 at 11:26 AM.
