Kenneth (Ken) Richard Brooks was born on September 8, 1943. Son of Phyllis Gee (Brooks) (deceased) and John H Brooks (deceased), Ken was born in Yakima Washington. He was raised in West Seattle near the ferry terminal with his two sisters (Marilyn Borders (Brooks) and Karen Roberts (Brooks)) both of whom survive him. Ken is also survived by his second wife Anita Brooks (Hatch), his son John Kenneth Brooks (54) and his daughter Sheila Anne Brooks (52). He is further survived by his grandchildren Gabriel Brooks-Lopez, Jack Brooks, and Beckett Brooks. Ken is preceded in death by his wife of 43 years and mother to John and Sheila, Marilynne Genevieve Brooks. As a child Ken developed interests and skills at working with his hands. He worked on model building, radio construction, and other projects, due to Ken’s limited mobility during recovery from surgeries relating to his genetic bone disease. These interests would follow him the rest of his life as he pursued interests in stained glass making, small construction projects and wood working. As his first wife transitioned to a career as an Occupational Therapist, Ken could be found most evenings at the dining room table fashioning braces and splints for Marilynne’s patients. Always active and engaged with people, Ken became the manager of his high school baseball team at Chief Sealth High School in West Seattle. It was a role he cherished and inspired him to cultivate countless deep friendships throughout his life. After graduating high school, Ken entered the University of Puget Sound where he joined the Phi Delta Kappa fraternity and remained an enthusiastic supporter of his fraternity and fraternity brothers for the rest of his life. Initially pursuing studies in the Russian Language and Engineering his love of physics and mathematics led to him minoring in those subjects while completing his degree in Business. Ken was a voracious student and learner throughout his life. He obtained his MBA from the Boeing Executive MBA program at the University of Washington in 1989 (during which time his son, John, was an undergraduate student at the UW and they spent many evenings at The College Inn Pub). Ken shared his love of science with his family and tutored his wife and two children in chemistry and mathematics for countless hours as they moved through high school and college. Ken was a lifelong employee of the Boeing Company where he led engineering and production teams and organizations for more than 40 years in numerous military and commercial projects. This included Boeing’s foray into the hydrofoil ship building business and the B1 Bomber. Throughout the mid 1980s and early 1990s, Ken’s top secret involvement in the B1 Bomber was unknown to all but his closest work colleagues. He was quite proud and relieved when the program was made public and he could finally tell his family what he had been working on for 10+ years. As a devoted husband and father, Ken built a cabin for the family on Silcox Island in the middle of American Lake near Fort Lewis. He completed and oversaw all of the construction except for the initial framing and siding of the home. Summers were spent working on cabin projects and taking his children water skiing on the lake. Always the intrepid and enthusiastic adventurer, Ken embarked on a 15,000-mile “connection tour” after Marilynne, his wife of 43 years, passed away in 2009. He traveled in his 2001 RoadTrek RV with his two pugs (Ernie and Elmo) and visited fraternity brothers, former work colleagues, family, and a lifetime collection of dear friends throughout the United States. He kept everyone apprised of his activities through his blog, “The Babbling Brook(s)” which was always interesting, insightful, delightfully written and a warm reflection of his travels. After spending a few months collecting his thoughts, Ken decided to set off to pursue his lifelong desire to learn Italian, and settled on a plan to move to Lucca. He discovered that Lucca was the “flattest” town in Tuscany and set up shop there. He settled into a lovely cadence of the day: hosting visitors, meeting with his language teacher, going to the market, embarking on adventures nearby, and generally making a nuisance of himself with the people he enlisted in his grand adventure. Upon his return home, Ken met Anita Hatch and they fell madly in love. Always a loving and engaged couple, it was evident from the earliest moments that Ken was smitten with Anita and she with him. They were extraordinary, supportive, incredibly close and inspiring partners in Ken’s final years. John and Sheila are incredibly grateful for this gift and are indebted to Anita for the amazing partnership she created with their father. Ken was passionate about the welfare of animals. In lieu of flowers, a donation in Ken’s name to either The Noah Center (https://www.thenoahcenter.org/) or Old Dog Haven (https://olddoghaven.org/) would be very much appreciated.