Published by the MIT News Office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.
Published by the MIT News Office at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Cambridge, Mass.
E.P. Brooks, First Sloan Dean Edward Pennell Brooks, the founding dean of the Sloan School of Management from 1951 to 1959, died of a heart attack Friday, February 22, at his farm in Millboro Springs, Va. He was 95. Dean Brooks was a vice president and director of Sears, Roebuck and Company in Chicago, Ill., when he was chosen by the late MIT President James R. Killian, Jr., to head a new school of industrial management at the Institute. The school, which grew out of courses in administration and management offered at MIT since 1914, was established with a gift from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. It was named for its benefactor, Mr. Sloan, the former General Motors head, in 1964. Dr. Killian said at the time that the school's objective was "to capitalize on the broad resources of science and engineering at MIT by correlating them with the complex problems of industrial administration." He said that Mr. Brooks, who received a bachelor of science degree in business and engineering administration from MIT in 1917, brought to the post of dean "comprehensive industrial experience and a basic understanding of engineering as well as business methods," with "the capacity to translate that experience into an educational program." Equally important, he said, Mr. Brooks had "a basic understanding of the relationships of human beings within an organization, as well as the relationships and mutual obligations of business and society." MIT's former president and chairman, Howard W. Johnson, who was recruited by Mr. Brooks to be associate dean of the Sloan School and then succeeded him as dean, said: "Penn Brooks, as MIT's first Dean of Management, set a requirement for quality and innovation in management education that has benefited both the field and generations of MIT students. He was one of those larger-than-life personalities who brought excitement and energy to all of his activities. All of us who followed him will remember his unrelenting enthusiasm with a sense of affection and awe." Mr. Brooks, called "Penn" by his friends, retired in 1960 as dean emeritus and professor emeritus. He continued to serve as a senior lecturer for several years. Dean Brooks was a member of the MIT Corporation, the Institute's governing body, from 1941 to 1946. The Institute honored him in 1983 with the dedication of the Edward Pennell Brooks Center at MIT's Endicott House residence conference center in Dedham. Mass., and also established an adjacent garden in memory of his late wife, Carol Wright Brooks, who died in 1971. Dean Brooks was born in Westbrook, Me., in 1895 into a family that had lived in Maine for many generations. His forebears were merchants, manufacturers and farmers. After graduating from MIT he served for two years as an officer in the Army's First Engineers, First Division. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross "for extraordinary heroism in action." Following the war, after early experience with several industrial companies, he joined Sears, Roebuck in 1927. He was retail merchandise manager, district manager, merchandise supervisor and, from 1939 to 1951, vice president in charge of factories as well as a director of the company. During these years he served industry in many capacities and was a director of more than 25 corporations, among them the Erie Railroad, American Optical Company, Sharon Steel, Armstrong Rubber, Whirlpool Corporation, and both the Colonial Fund and Colonial Growth Fund of Boston. During World War II he served as consultant to various war-time activities, organized and chaired the Committee on Equipment and Materials of the Research and Development Board and, in 1945, was vice deputy in charge of the American Mission to the Chinese War Production Board. He was awarded the Medal of Freedom and the Chinese Victory Medal. After the war he continued to serve the federal government in various consultant capacities and, while at MIT, he led the first Advanced Management Program in India. In his lifetime Dean Brooks also was active in civic affairs in Chicago, Boston and in Virginia. He was the acting head of the Chicago Community Fund Campaign in 1941, a director of the Chicago Institute of Design and the Chicago Chapter of the American Red Cross. After moving to Virginia in 1971, Dean Brooks was the first chairman of the Garth Newel Music Center Foundation in Hot Springs, Va. He remained active in civic and cultural affairs until his death. Dean Brooks had been a director of the American Management Association and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He received an honorary Doctor of Science in Commerce Degree from Drexel Institute of Technology in 1958. His survivors include two daughters, Beverly Brooks Floe of Belmont, Mass. and Carol Brooks Pihl of Hinsdale, Ill., and a son, Robert Wright Brooks of Manakin-Sabot, Va.; seven grandchildren and nine great grandchildren. Memorial services will be be announced. Memorial contributions may be made to the Garth Newel Music Center in Hot Springs or to the Edward Pennell Brooks Memorial Fund at MIT.