John E. Brooks

John E. Brooks SJ (July 13, 1923 – July 2, 2012) was an American Jesuit priest who served as the 28th president of the College of the Holy Cross from 1970 to 1994. He joined the Society of Jesus in 1950.

Biography Before becoming a priest, Brooks graduated from Boston Latin School in 1942, then enlisted in the U.S. Army Signal Corps in 1943, serving in the European Theater of Operations from 1944 to 1946.

He graduated from the College of the Holy Cross with a degree in physics in 1949, obtained a master's degree in geophysics from Boston College, and a Doctor of Sacred Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University.

Brooks was a member of the Faculty of the Theology Department at Holy Cross, and served as vice president and dean of college. He also served as chair of Religious Studies and Theology. During his presidency, he and Peter Likins of Lehigh University were the two college presidents contacted by the Ivy League in the first stage of the formation of the Patriot League in the early 1980s. Following his retirement as president in 1994, Brooks remained at the College as president emeritus.

In 1968, he recruited a group of young African-American men to study at Holy Cross. A 2007 article in Businessweek said that "Brooks helped shape an exceptional group of overachievers", including Clarence Thomas and Edward P. Jones, as chronicled in Diane Brady's 2012 book on the integration of Holy Cross, Fraternity.

Brooks Music Hall is named in his honor, one of the only halls named after a person while they were alive. Construction of the building was overseen by Father Brooks' nephew, Paul F. Brooks Jr.

Death After being treated for lymphoma at the University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center-University Worcester Campus, Brooks died on July 2, 2012, at age 88.