 He also formed the Robert Brownlee Foundation, a private family foundation which supports, with grants, K–12 science.In addition, the contributions of his foundation made possible a project introducing children to marine sciences, aboard the 90-foot research vessel the "Robert G. Brownlee", built in 1998 and run by the Marine Science Institute (San Francisco Bay) of Redwood City, California.He died on February 27, 1991 of AIDS.