Robert A. Brooks

Career A native of the Boston area, Brooks attended Boston Latin High and then Boston English High, from which he graduated in 1949. He enrolled at Northeastern University but dropped out the following year to join the United States Navy, where he gained familiarity with radio and radar equipment while serving during the Korean War. Upon leaving the military he returned to Northeastern University, receiving a degree in electrical engineering in 1958. By the late 1970s he was head of Telecom Cablevision, which owned and operated cable TV systems west of St. Louis, in the cities of St. Charles, St. Peters, and Columbia. The company also operated some cable systems in the St. Louis area through a partnership with Teleprompter Corporation. Telecom Cablevision was eventually acquired by Group W Cable in 1980.

Next, in 1981, with seed capital of $300,000, Robert Brooks founded Cencom Cable Associates, pioneering the deployment of fiber-optic technology for cable TV. Within the next ten years, Cencom became the 21st-largest In 1993 some former managers of Cencom — Howard Wood, Jerald Kent, and Barry Babcock — purchased the company back from Hallmark and formed Charter Communications,

The southern facade of the Brooks Fiber Properties Headquarters spelled out the company's name in Morse code. BFP was later sold, and the current (2014) occupant of the building is CenturyLink. Also in 1991, along with his son John, Robert founded Brooks Telecommunications Company, which then spawned multiple subsidiary companies including Brooks Fiber Properties, and Brooks Telecommunications International, which was tasked with building broadband networks in Guangzhou, China.

Brooks Fiber Properties was founded in 1993 as a data CLEC (competitive local exchange carrier) for $41 million. BFP's first year's revenue was $2,000, which grew to $2.8 million in 1994, and $14.2 million the following year. In January it purchased another network company, City Signal, bringing its annual revenue to $23 million. It went public two years later. In 1996, BFP built a new Headquarters building in Town and Country, Missouri. Designed by architect Seab Tuck, the building featured the company's name spelled out in Morse code in the southern facade of the windows.

Brooks Fiber was acquired by WorldCom in 1998 in a transaction that valued the equity at $2.6 billion. Robert Brooks and several members of the Brooks Fiber team then went on to found Gabriel Communications, raising $80 million in three days, and naming the company after Archangel Gabriel. In 2004, NuVox merged with NewSouth Communications, and in 2009 it was acquired by Windstream for $643 million.

Recognition 1986, chosen by The Cable Center for the list of Cable TV Pioneers 1999, selected by Red Herring magazine as one of the Top Ten Entrepreneurs of 1999 March 2000, appeared on the cover of St. Louis Commerce magazine In 1996, he was ordained as a Deacon by Archbishop (later Cardinal) Justin Rigali, serving at Ascension Church in Chesterfield, Missouri and at St. Mary's Star of the Sea in Longboat Key, Florida. He met Pope John Paul II multiple times, and helped arrange a Papal visit to St. Louis in 1999. Michael Brooks held several senior positions at Anheuser-Busch, and as of 2014 is CEO of Ardent Outdoors, Inc.

Robert Brooks died in 2000 at St. John's Hospital in St. Louis, from complications after surgery for cancer. His funeral mass was performed by Archbishop Rigali.