E. Howard Brooks, former president of Scripps College, died on September 24, 2007, in his home in San Luis Obispo after a brief illness. He was 86.
Scripps College will hold a memorial service in honor of Howard Brooks on January 19, 2008 in Balch Auditorium on the Scripps College campus. A reception will follow at Revelle House.
Brooks began serving as provost of the College in 1987. Two years later, in July of 1989, he was appointed acting president. In December of that year, he was appointed president of Scripps College by the Board of Trustees to serve until his requested retirement on June 30, 1990.
During his presidency, Brooks restructured and redefined the positions of dean of faculty and dean of students and reorganized the budget committee so that the faculty had a say in budget distribution. He advocated an improved balance in cross-registration across the Claremont Consortium.
He also worked on diversifying the Scripps syllabus. In a spring 1990 Scripps Bulletin interview, Brooks said, “I believe very much in a general education core.” He believed that the College could not continue to portray itself solely as a women’s college that emphasized the humanities and the arts. “In the future, Scripps will perhaps be described as a residential liberal arts college for women with a strong central core in the humanities and arts,” he said.
Brooks first joined The Claremont Colleges in 1971, when he began serving his term as provost of what is now the Claremont University Consortium. After his time at the Consortium, Howard worked for several years as Vice President of Planning and Development for Claremont McKenna College. Prior to that, he worked for Stanford University for 22 years in a variety of senior and administrative positions and as a consultant to several foundations.
Brooks is survived by his wife, Courtaney; two daughters, Robin Pollock and Merilee Runyan; and three grandchildren.