William Penn Brooks

William Penn Brooks (November 19, 1851 – March 8, 1938) was an American agricultural scientist, who worked as a foreign advisor in Meiji era Japan during the colonization project for Hokkaidō. He was the eighth president of the Massachusetts Agricultural College. Brooks is remembered as one of six Founders of Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity in 1873.

Biography Early life Brooks was born in South Scituate, Massachusetts, United States to Nathaniel Brooks and Rebecca Partridge (Cushing), the tenth of a family of eleven children, and born when his father was well past fifty. His father's ancestors came to North America in 1635, and his mother's belonged to the Cushings of England. He had studied in the public schools, at Assinippi Institute and at the Hanover Academy. He taught school in Hanover and Rockland, then entered college at the beginning of the third term of his freshman year.

Collegiate activities Brooks' collegiate activities are notable because of his role in founding Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity along with five fellow students.

While at "Aggie," Brooks was a member of the Washington Irving Literary Society, a popular pastime among the undergraduates. He was a member of the Gymnastic Association, held the military rank of captain in the College's Battalion, and was an editor of the 1875 version of the college yearbook. His peers honored Brooks by election as permanent historian of the class. He was valedictorian of the Massachusetts Agricultural College class of 1875, where he had specialized in agricultural chemistry. Yet among all these, it was his role as a Founder of Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity in his Sophomore year by which his name is best remembered today.

In 1882, Brooks traveled home on leave and married. His wife, Eva Bancroft Hall Brooks went after him to live in Sapporo until his contract expired in 1888. During this time they had two children, Rachel Bancroft Brooks and Sumner Cushing Brooks (also to become a Phi Sig, Alpha, 1910), who later married noted American biologist Matilda Moldenhauer Brooks.

Back to Amherst, by way of Germany Brooks returned to the United States in October 1888 after having received the Order of the Rising Sun (4th class) from Emperor Meiji, and accepted a position at Massachusetts Agricultural College as a lecturer, and for two years, as president (1905–06). Brooks continued graduate study at the University of Halle in Germany, where he earned his doctorate. Continuing as a lecturer at Massachusetts Agricultural, he became the director of the Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station until his retirement in 1921, where he is remembered for introducing Japanese cultivars, including several Japanese varieties of soybean and millet.

In 1920, Brooks received an honorary doctorate from the Minister of Education in Japan.

Old North Hall, site of ΦΣΚ's founding in 1873, at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. "The Shrine," a memorial to the Founders, is visible at the left of the front door. Brooks was present for its dedication.

Retirement Brooks made his retirement home in Amherst.

Brooks had maintained correspondence with, and occasional activity with his collegiate fraternity for his entire life. In 1893, at the twenty-year anniversary of the founding, Brooks was appointed a committee of one to prepare an updated constitution for the order, which was adopted unanimously. It settled a long-simmering debate on the emerging structure of the national organization. In 1902 he participated in the induction of the Fraternity's new Omicron chapter at M.I.T. The two followed up this appearance by joining the 1926 Convention in Philadelphia, and to the surprise and joy of many, they both traveled nearly 3,000 miles to the 1928 San Francisco Convention of the Fraternity.

After his first wife died (1924) he married Grace L. Holden in 1927 at the age of seventy-six.

Brooks died at the age of 86 in Amherst, Massachusetts in 1938. He had been the sole surviving Founder since the death of Campbell nine years earlier.

The Brooks House, a dormitory on the UMass campus, built in 1948, was named in his honor.

Selected works "Conditions Affecting the Strength of the Stomach of the Calf for Rennet", Hatch Experiment Station Bulletin No. 11 (1891) "Soil Tests with Fertilizers for Corn" Hatch Experiment Station Bulletin No. 14 (1891) "Soil Tests with Fertilizers for Potatoes, Oats and Corn" Hatch Experiment Station Bulletin No. 18 (1892) "How to Keep Up the Fertility of Our Farms", Forty-Second Annual Report of the Secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture (1895) "Experiment Station Accuracy", correspondence with Andrew H. Ward (1899) "Agriculture" (1901) "Soils, Formation", Volume I "Manures, Fertilizers & Farm Crops", Volume II "Animal Husbandry", Volume III "Drainage" Fifty-Sixth Annual Report of the Secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture (1908) "Poultry Farming for Women", from Vocations for the Trained Woman (1910) "The Hay Crop in Massachusetts", "Grasses and Forage Crops", Massachusetts Agricultural Bulletin No. 3 (1915) "The Management of Mowings", "Grasses and Forage Crops", Massachusetts Agricultural Bulletin No. 3 (1915) "Clovers: Their Value, Characteristics of Varieties and Methods of Production, "Grasses and Forage Crops", Massachusetts Agricultural Bulletin No. 3 (1915) "A Fertilizer Experiment with Asparagus", coauthored F. W. Morse, Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin No. 194 (1919) "Methods of Applying Manure", Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin No. 196 (1920)