Malvin died in Oregon, 6 August 1945, at the age of 24. The first smokejumper to die in the line of duty.

Malvin L. Brown was born 7 October, 1920, in Baltimore Maryland, the fifth child of Steve and Ethel Brown. A young man living in the Philadelphia area, Malvin enlisted in the US Army in 1942. He volunteered and was accepted into the newly formed 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion - Triple Nickles, where he took paratrooper and later medical technician training at Fort Benning, Georgia.

In May 1945, the 555th reported for duty in Pendleton, Oregon, assigned to combat wildfires - Operation Firefly. He lost his life in a fall from a tree on a wildfire near Lemon Butte, Umpqua National Forest, Oregon. He was survived by his wife Edna and a daughter.