Baltimore County developer Howard Brown has donated $2.5 million to establish a professorship in trauma surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Brown, chairman of David S. Brown Ltd. and developer of the sprawling Metro Centre project off Interstate 795, presented the gift this week. It adds to past gifts to UM Medicine for a total of $6.5 million.

It was made in memory of his beloved daughter Esther Ann Brown Adler, who passed away in April 2010, and will establish a trauma surgery professorship to honor Thomas M. Scalea, director of the Program in Trauma and physician-in-chief at the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland Medical System.

Brown has also honored the memory of Adler through placement of a large-scale menorah at the Inner Harbor for Hannukah each December.

“I have always believed in taking an active part in the development of both the business and philanthropic community of Baltimore,” Brown said Wednesday, in a statement. “Dr.…