Ben F Brooks Jr.

Benjamin Franklin Brooks, Jr., was born January 9th, 1937, and passed away on April 24, 2025, at 88 years of age. He was born in Weleetka, Oklahoma, but resided in El Paso, Texas, for 78 years, from 1947 until his death. A graduate of Cathedral High School, UTEP (B.A.), and Sul Ross State University (M.Ed.), Ben was a teacher and coach for almost 65 years. During that time, he coached at St. Pius and St. Joseph Catholic Schools, along with Cathedral and Fr. Yermo High Schools. He was the principal of St. Patrick School in the mid to late 1990s, where he had attended school as a young boy fresh from Oklahoma. He pioneered both AAU and TAC summer track in El Paso through his all-girls team, the Sun Queens, from 1968 to 1983, taking several young El Paso women to the National Meet multiple times.

He worked at Canutillo High School, coaching the district’s first-ever State Champion. He went on to coach multiple state qualifiers in Cross Country and Track & Field at both Jefferson-Silva and Bowie High Schools, culminating in more than a dozen all-state runners and multiple Bowie Cross Country teams placing in the top three at State meets. His greatest and most well-known professional achievement was coaching two Texas State 5A Championship teams at Bowie—boys in 1979 and girls in 1986. He was also the distance running coach at New Mexico State University (1989-91); was named El Paso Times Coach of the Year in 1979, 1983, and 1987; and was inducted into the El Paso Athletic Hall of Fame in 2010. His other honors include being named Meet Director of the 1981 International Games and 1993 Texas State TAA Games and being invited to serve as a meet official for the 2000 U.S. Track & Field Olympic Trials.

More importantly, as long-time El Paso Times sports reporter, Julio Lujan, wrote:

“When you think of Benny Brooks, you recall cross country success at Bowie High School, a campus where…champions are few and far between, just by the nature of the school's location. Yet, Benny won there, and at Canutillo High, and at St. Joseph's, and at Jefferson High. But he also clearly won at home, too. His late wife, Rosemary, and he raised eight children to become productive citizens—six of them having been teachers and coaches—and as Rosemary once ably put it, ‘each one of them a good example for other people.’”

Benny was preceded in death by his parents, Benjamin Franklin Brooks, Sr, and Mary Georgianne (Patterson), as well as three of his siblings (Georgianne Skov, Charlotte Hendon, and Ralph Brooks). One son, Joseph Gerard Brooks, also predeceased him. The love of his life and wife of 52 years, Rosemary K. Brooks, waited to be reunited with him in Heaven for nearly 17 years. Benny is survived by one brother, Robert Brooks, and 8 living children: Debbie Brooks, Stephani Olenski (Jim), Ben F. Brooks, III (Renée), Tracy Fernández (Mike), Mary Burciaga (Armando), Margaret Greehey (Doug), Eddie Brooks (Aide), and Julia Duncan (Corby). He leaves behind 26 grandchildren (aged 6-46), 32 great-grandchildren, and 2 great-great-grandchildren…so far.

The viewing will take place at 9:30 a.m. on Friday, May 9th, followed by a Rosary and Mass at 10:00 and 10:30 a.m., all at St. Patrick Cathedral in El Paso. Interment at Mount Carmel Cemetery (401 S Zaragoza Rd., El Paso, Texas) will directly follow the religious services. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made in the names of Benny and Rosemary Brooks to Father Yermo Schools at 220 Washington, El Paso, TX, 79928.