Ionia-Montcalm County MI Archives Obituaries.....Brooks, Richard E. 2003
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Marilyn Ransom mransom311@gmail.com August 25, 2014, 10:44 pm

The Greenville Daily News, June 2003


Chassell – Richard E. Brooks, 86, a resident of Covington Rest Home, died 
Monday, June 2, 2003 at Baraga County Memorial Hospital following a short bout 
with pneumonia  and a long bout with Alzheimer’s disease.  He was born July 12, 
1916 in Carson City, the son of Ray Clare and Hazel May Brice Brooks.

He was valedictorian of his 1934 Carson city High School graduating class, 
where he also earned 16 varsity athletic letters.  While in high school he 
worked for the Michigan Produce Company and his father’s Brooks IGA store.  He 
was a 1939 graduate of Michigan State College in mechanical engineering and a 
member of the engineering honorary Tau Beta Pi.  His major was metallurgy.  On 
June 6, 1939 he married Phyllis M. McCoy of Belding.  The couple lived briefly 
in Grand Rapids, Saginaw, and Chattanooga, before making their home in Dearborn 
in 1947.  They moved again to Chassell in 1997.  After college, Richard worked 
for the Grand Rapids Stamping and Saginaw Malleable Iron divisions of General 
Motors as Safety Director.  In January 1941 he went to work for Combustion 
Engineering as a welding engineer working on boilers for Liberty ships.  In 
July 1947 he took a position of welding engineering at the Ford Motor Company, 
retiring in April 1978.  At Ford he was responsible for developing experimental 
welding techniques so they could be adopted and profitable for the company.  He 
brought several technologies to the point of profitability, including MIG, 
electron beam and friction welding.

He was a life member of the American Welding Society and a licensed 
professional engineer in Michigan. He was a member of First United Methodist 
Church in Dearborn and Dearborn Lodge 172 Free and Accepted Masons.  Richard 
and Phyllis enjoyed traveling in the Americas, camping and hiking and square 
dancing with the Model “T” Squares.  They walked the Mackinaw Bridge many 
times.  They spent 20 years being Fort Myers Beach, Florida winter “snow 
birds.”  He was secretary of the Parkview Memorial Cemetery—with her help—and 
she was a Dearborn City Beautiful commissioner and Keep Michigan Beautiful 
board member—with his help.  He enjoyed fishing, water skiing, bicycling, 
bowling, golf, poker and laying the stock market. 

He was preceded in death by his parents; wife, Phyllis, in February 1998; and 
brothers, John of Carson City and Paul of Redondo Beach, California.

He is survived by brother, Robert of Carson City; only son, Richard Jr. of 
Chassell; daughter-in-law Karen; granddaughter, Robin; and grandsons, Jon and 
James.

Plowe Funeral Home of Houghton is in charge of arrangements.  A memorial 
service this summer in Carson City will precede burial in Belding.  Memorials 
may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association.


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