Calvin Brooks' Obituary
Mr. Calvin Brooks was born on October 13, 1938 in Lilbourn, Missouri, a small rural town on the southern
border with Kentucky and Tennessee.
A middle child of eleven children, Calvin's life was a testimony to the power of personal perseverance, determination, and education, from a childhood of picking cotton as a very young child to support his sharecropping household in the segregated "Jim Crow" American south, to becoming a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of the District of Columbia, with teaching positions throughout the United States and the African continent, including Liberia, Uganda, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.
In 1957, Calvin was among the first African American students to attend the University of Missouri, and while an undergraduate took his first of many travels to Africa through a YMCA volunteer program in Sinoe, Liberia. The following years, he received a graduate diploma in Education from Columbia University Teachers College in New York City, participating in their Teachers for East Africa program in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, and
attending Makere University College in Kampala, Uganda. Subsequently, he earned two Master's degrees, one in Physics and one in Engineering, attending University of Maryland, and Catholic and Howard universities in Washington DC. Throughout this time, he was an active participant in the U.S. civil rights movement, including being arrested for refusing to leave an all-white counter at a Greyhound bus station after being denied service, and participation in the historic 1963 March on Washington, during which Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his landmark "I Have a Dream" speech.
In 1968, he began a nearly five-decade career as a professor at Federal City College, which became the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) in 1977. During his time at UDC, he continued to take various teaching sabbaticals to Africa, including Harare Polytechnic University in Zimbabwe. After 48 years at UDC, Professor Brooks fully retired in 2016.
Known collectively as “Papa'', and “Uncle Dad'', Calvin’s life was committed to uplifting younger generations, whether teaching young people from all over the world or supporting educational and travel opportunities for his children and grandchildren. Throughout, he made it clear that although education is very important, success also comes from being a good person and being true to oneself. He did not speak very much about his achievements, but instead was a living inspiration through his actions and encouragement of others.
On January 8, 2023, at Washington Hospital, with his loved ones by his side, Calvin died of complications from colon cancer. We will miss him very much.
Calvin is survived by his wife Penelope Brooks of Washington DC and Harare, Zimbabwe, and a blended family of daughter Stephanie Brooks, son Zaheed Abdul, daughters Sardea Stafford, Farana Abdul and Mehrunisha Williams, and grandchildren Olivia, Sardea, Daniel, Chloe, Andrew, Zaheed, Leah, Jonah, Laylah, Jeffrey and Nissar. He is also survived by his sister Frances Spearman of Carbondale Illinois, and a host of nieces and nephews living throughout the United States and abroad.
A memorial honoring Calvin's incredible life will take place on Sunday February 19th, 1:00 pm at Lasting
Tributes Funeral Care at 814 Bestgate Road, Annapolis, MD 21401. It will also be streamed virtually at
LastingTributesFuneralCare.com to allow his many family and friends to attend from all over the world. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the UDC School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
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