Harvey Brooks, former Case trustee, dies at 88
Served as science adviser to U.S. presidents
June 16, 2004 | For more information: Laura M. Massie (216)-368-4442
Harvey Brooks, Ph.D., a Cleveland-born physicist and administrator at Harvard University and former trustee and current honorary trustee at Case Western Reserve University , died May 28 at his home in Cambridge , Mass. He was 88.
 Dr. Brooks studied and helped shape national science policies involving energy, the military and the environment. He served on science advisory committees in the Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson administrations.
Dr. Brooks was born in Cleveland in 1915. He attended Hawken School from 1921 through 1929. He graduated from Yale and studied at Cambridge before receiving a doctorate in physics from Harvard in 1940. His cousin Allen H. Ford currently serves as an honorary trustee of Case. Another cousin, Amasa Brooks Ford, M.D., is emeritus professor of medicine at the Case School of Medicine.
In addition to his service to the three former U.S. presidents and to Harvard, Dr. Brooks was a trustee of Case Institute of Technology from 1963 to 1967, at the time of Federation of Case and Western Reserve College . He then became a Trustee of Case Western Reserve University, where he served from 1967-83. He has served as an Honorary Trustee of Case from 1983 until his death. He helped plan the Michelson-Morley Centennial celebration in 1988.
Dr. Brooks has received six honorary doctor of science degrees from Kenyon College , Union College , and Yale, Brown, Harvard and Ohio State universities. He retired in 1986 from Harvard, where he was given the title of the Benjamin Pierce Professor of Technology and Public Policy, Emeritus, in the Kennedy School of Government. He also was the Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Physics, Emeritus, in the Division of Applied Sciences at Harvard. Most recently, Dr. Brooks was a member of several committees of the National Academy of Engineering dealing with issues of technology in relation to U.S. competitiveness in the world economy.
Dr. Brooks' primary research was in the fields of solid state physics, nuclear engineering, underwater acoustics and science and public policy. He founded the international Journal of the Physics and Chemistry of Solids in 1957 and remained its editor-in-chief until the mid-70s.
He was president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in the 1970's and was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering and the Council on Foreign Relations.
He was the author of many articles in professional journals and wrote "The Government of Science" (1968), which explored the relationship of science and government.
He helped to develop the acoustic homing torpedo during World War II, and later worked for General Electric on a project to use nuclear-powered reactors in submarines. In 1950, he joined Harvard's Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and was its dean from 1957 to 1975. He officially retired in 1986, but continued to teach and to advise.
Dr. Brooks is survived by his wife of 58 years, the former Helen Lathrop. Other survivors include three daughters, Rosalind B. Stowe of Cambridge , Katharine G. Brooks of Boone, N.C., and Alice B. Bourgoin of Ferrisburg , Vt. ; a son, Kingsley C. of Fairfield , Iowa ; and two grandchildren.
About Case Western Reserve University
Case is among the nation's leading research institutions. Founded in 1826
and shaped by the unique merger of the Case Institute of Technology and Western
Reserve University, Case is distinguished by its strengths in education, research,
service, and experiential learning. Located in Cleveland, Case offers nationally
recognized programs in the Arts and Sciences, Dental Medicine, Engineering,
Law, Management, Medicine, Nursing, and Social Work. http://www.case.edu.
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