John (Jack) Arthur Brooks

We mourn the loss and celebrate the life of John (Jack) Arthur Brooks, who died peacefully on Tuesday, October 13, 2026, at his home in Aurora, Ontario. Jack was born on September 22, 1938, to Lena Tristram Brooks (née Moynihan) and James Henry Brooks in Newmarket, Ontario.

Throughout his life, Jack valued and imparted to his family a love of community sports, music, social justice, and the importance of enduring lifelong friendships.

Sports were among his earliest passions. Growing up in Aurora, “Jackie” was an ace southpaw pitcher, regularly making headlines in the local papers. As a hockey player in the fifties, he was invited to try out for the Montreal Junior Canadiens. Throughout the seventies, eighties, and nineties, King City sports seemed to orbit Jack’s devotion to coaching, refereeing, umpiring, and sports writing for The King Weekly. And although patience was not his first trait, he spent years volunteering to be argued with by people certain they had seen the play better.

Music became another lifelong passion soon after his older brother, Ron, dragged him out to his first school band practice. Jack went on to become a country waltz drummer of the first order. His brushwork was subtle and understated and with a triplet swing feel that resisted playing rigidly on the beat. Jack resisted living rigidly on the beat. Throughout the sixties and seventies, he performed professionally with various country and western bands in the dance halls of Musselman’s Lake. He later taught himself piano and guitar.

Jack was a singular character who defied easy description. He could be the life of the party, and he could be paralyzed with an endearing shyness. Those who knew him for more than an hour will remember his infectious laugh and dry wit. He had a tool for every job and was woeful as a handyman. However, he could train a cat to sequentially sit, bat a ball, then jump up and tap him on the nose for a treat. Always an animal lover, he was passionate about nature, and had a fondness for cats, dogs, and bird-watching.

The quintessential middle child, Jack was a peaceable man, but the first to stand up to a bully. An autodidact through and through, he was suspicious of higher education, yet valued and encouraged it for his children and granddaughter. His political convictions were less shyly expressed than his affections: he was perilously unafraid to ruin any dinner at which democratic socialism, workers’ rights, unions, and pay equity were not unanimously celebrated.

A childhood hockey injury left Jack blind in one eye, but never diminished his passion for photography. He turned his workshop into a darkroom and taught himself how to develop photographs. One year, he photographed every barn still standing in King Township, filling boxes with a record of a landscape he knew was changing. He wanted to protect fleeting things from being forgotten. His family and friends will remember him with that same attentiveness and care.

Jack and his lifelong beloved, Kay Brooks (née Campbell), shared seventy-two years together. She predeceased him by just forty-two days. Also predeceasing Jack were his older siblings, Margaret Ford (née Brooks) and Ronald Brooks. Jack is survived by his son, Jon Brooks; his daughter, Noreen Ann Robbins (née Brooks); his granddaughter, Madeline Brooks Robbins; his sisters, Rosemary Scott (née Brooks) and Barbara Connor (née Brooks); his daughter-in-law, Sandra Gayle Alves; his son-in-law, David Andrew Robbins; and his brothers-in-law, Derek Scott and Thomas Connor.

A Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday, December 5, 2026, at 3 p.m. in the Great Hall, upstairs at King City Arena and Community Centre, 25 Doctors Lane, King City, Ontario, L7B 1G2. The event will be accessible by elevator.

The family welcomes donations in Jack’s memory to the PSP Society of Canada, https://www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/100602