Thomas Brooks

Thomas Brooks was born February 11, 1941 at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. He grew up in the Westwood area of Los Angeles. As a youth, he enjoyed running and was an avid swimmer. After Verde Valley School in Sedona, Arizona, Tom graduated Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa from Pomona College in California with a major in mathematics. Because Tom had worked with Crossroads Africa, he eagerly became one of the first Peace Corps Volunteers in West Africa, where he met his wife, Deborah Williams Brooks, who was also serving in the Peace Corps. In Sierra Leone, Tom taught math in a secondary school dedicated to sons of Paramount Chiefs and he was beloved by his students. After two years in Africa, Tom returned to earn his Ph.D. in Economics at U.C. Berkeley where he wrote his thesis under a future Nobel Laureate.

Tom’s first academic appointment was at Yale University, where he became an Associate Professor of Economics at the Growth Center for Development Economics. Tom received large grants for his research and publications focusing on econometrics and economic development. He built up the masters studies in Economics for Foreign Students into a very successful program. Tom achieved the highest ratings as a professor of economics in the students’ evaluation book. He played a good game of duplicate bridge. He was proudest of his two children, Stephen Brooks and Anne Brooks, both born at the Yale-New Haven Hospital.

Tom went up to the Cold White North to teach economics at the University of Ottawa in Canada’s capitol. Tom took up tennis, skiing, ice skating, canoeing, and sailing. He was game to teach our children these sports. Although he was not predisposed to the long Canadian winters, he loved family stays for much of the summer at a cottage in a remote portion of Algonquin Park.

A move to Monterey, California brought a new angle on life as a financial consultant on two major projects: actually creating an electric car and a vacuum packaging machine in the 1990s. He was financial consultant to a nation-wide art company. Tom was president of a very large road system and neighborhood of over 250 homes. He took up a new sport: golf. Tom loved hiking along the ocean, the pines, and on mountain trails.

Our move to Charlottesville brought us closer to our children, Stephen in Hanover, New Hampshire, and Anne in New York City and two beloved grandchildren, Riley Brooks and Avery Brooks. Being closer to Europe enabled nearly annual trips to all of the British Isles, all of Scandinavia, Italy, France, Switzerland. We also enjoyed trips to Peru, Ecuador, Nicaragua, New Zealand, British Columbia, Quebec, Ontario, Wyoming, Colorado, Florida, Oregon, Washington State, and the northeast and southeast states.

Tom never stopped marveling in the distant view of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and he planted many ornamental trees on our property.

Tom’s most distinguishing characteristic is that he loved helping people: his students in Africa, Canada, and the U.S., his family, and numerous others. He would readily devote numerous hours to assist people in need, such as helping pro bono several people to be financially whole. Tom was a principled, kind, caring, generous, gentle, intelligent man who trod quietly on this hallowed earth. We are going to greatly miss him, his knowledge, and his moral perspective.

Please donate, if you wish, to Books for Africa, Doctors without Borders, or to a charity of your choice.