Inventor Name
Brooks, Richard J.
Repository
University of Washington Libraries
Special Collections
Box 352900
Seattle, WA 98195-2900
206-543-1929
http://www.lib.washington.edu/speciaLcoll/
Physical Description
7.62 cubic feet 8 boxes, one vertical file, one oversize folder, one mapcase folder
Summary
Richard J. Brooks (1923-2001) was a Seattle businessman and inventor who was also active in a variety of regional environmental causes. He founded Chemithon Corporation, an industrial equipment manufacturing company, and was president of the company for thirty years. In 1982, he started Brooks Rand, Ltd., a company which specializes in chemical process development and trace metal analysis. Brooks obtained over thirty United States patents on chemical engineering-related inventions during his career. He was a member of the Solid Waste Advisory Committee for the Seattle City Council, consultant to the City of Seattle for the Gas Works Park cleanup efforts, and a member of the Union Bay Preservation Coalition, a neighborhood organization, from approximately 1992 to 1999. From approximately 1973 to 1990, Brooks was on the board of directors of the North Cascades Conservation Council, through which he became involved in issues such as the opposition to raising Ross Dam on the Skagit River in Washington. He also worked independently on such causes as fighting Interstate-90 freeway expansion in King County, Washington and the expansion of the West Point Treatment Facility in Seattle, Washington by the Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle (METRO). Brooks' papers document his activities as a businessman and environmentalist. He was concerned with the preservation of wilderness areas, and many urban enviromental issues. This concern is reflected in his correspondence and several files in his personal papers. Subject files contain papers and reference material from his involvement with Gas Works Park, Interstate-90, METRO's sewage treatment facilities, and Ross Dam, among other civic projects. Many of the same correspondents appear in the subject files as in the general correspondence. Letters from North Cascades Conservation Council members appear in the general correspondence and some subject files, such as Stehekin, as well as the North Cascades Conservation Council series. Major correspondents include: Patrick Goldsworthy, Richard Haag, Henry M. Jackson, Grant McConnell, Charles Royer, Seattle City Light, and the U.S. Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Regional Office.
Finding Aid
http://nwda-db.wsulibs.wsu.edu/nwda-search/fstyle.aspx?doc=WAUMSS2903.xml&t=k&q=inventions