Gordon Brooks
Los Angeles, NJ
Gordon Charles Brooks, formerly of Titusville NJ, left this world the same way he entered it: too soon. Born prematurely to Jane Howell Brooks and H. Fisher Brooks on September 2nd, 1952, he died on December 21st, 2025 in Los Angeles, CA after a protracted battle with kidney cancer. He was 73.
He was a passionate, adventurous, creative, and capable person.
Passionate
As his crowded bookshelves show, Gordon loved American history, the LA Dodgers, Bob Dylan, and the world created by JRR Tolkien. He still had his collection of baseballs and mitts from his trips to Dodger Stadium, and watched the winning games on TV. (The ones they lost were too heart-breaking.) While waiting for surgery at the beginning of December, he gave a detailed treatise on what the Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown” had gotten right and what had been fudged or altered. Harold Shore’s soundtrack for “The Fellowship of the Ring” brought him to tears.
Adventurous
Gordon and his brother Greg were avid, accomplished backpackers and mountain climbers. After graduating from Rutgers University, (where he was president of the Rutgers Outdoor Club) Gordon moved to the Cascade mountains of Washington State where he and Greg were loggers and climbers. (No wonder our mother had grey hair!) In addition, Gordon was a manager at the Grand Teton Climber’s Ranch in Grand Teton National Park and participated in Frontier / Mountain Man Rendezvous gatherings.
Creative and Capable
Gordon wrote for, and edited, the alternative magazine “Zepher’”at Hopewell Valley High School, creating a local kerfuffle over free speech and student rights. (One of the articles or stories included a profanity.),
Classmates from Rutgers University’s anthropology classes remember him as the smartest guy in the room, with a huge vocabulary. He additionally obtained a Master’s degree from Antioch University.
As Chris Worley, of Pepperdine University wrote: Gordon was the program manager for Pepperdine University’s Master of Science in Organization Development for over 20 years. During his tenure, he recruited, onboarded, guided, and graduated the program’s participants; he was a reliable and provocative hub in the alumni network; he was instrumental in overseeing several strategic re-designs of the curriculum. He developed a reputation for not just shepherding people through the program, but as a trusted voice of wisdom. His deep knowledge of the field and his iconic, broad-based understanding of philosophy and current affairs made for great and unusual conversations. No history of the program would be complete without some salty Gordon stories. He was a unique character.
Gordon made deerskin clothing and shoes, a muzzle loading rifle, a muzzle loading pistol, and other gear to use in his frontier reenactments. His neighbors at Village Green appreciated his ability to make and fix just about anything.
He is survived by his brother Gregory Brooks, sister-in-law Margaret Ostling (both of Leavenworth, WA) and his sister, Carol Brooks Thomas of Hamilton, NJ, as well as loving cousins on both coasts, two nephews and two nieces. He is also survived by his fish, a California desert tortoise “Buddah,” a Russian steppe tortoise “Kosh,” and his cat, “Scamper.” Family and friends will all miss his laughter, great smile, and crazy sense of humor.
There will be two Quaker style Memorial Services. The first will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 28, 2026 at the Village Green community clubhouse, 5300 Obama Blvd., Los Angeles CA. The second will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 25, 2026 at Newtown Friends Meetinghouse, 219 Court Street, Newtown, PA.
