David Brooks, PhD

About David Brooks

David A. Brooks, Emeritus Professor of Oceanography, recently retired from Texas A&M University after 41 years. Originally from Eastport, he completed a B.S. in electrical engineering at the University of Maine. A summer job testing sonobuoys in the waters off Pemaquid introduced him to the Boothbay region in 1964. For several years he worked for General Electric on fire control systems for Polaris submarines, then returned to graduate studies, completing an M.S. in ocean engineering and Ph.D. in physical oceanography at the University of Miami.

His earliest connection with Bigelow came in 1975 when Charlie Yentsch invited him to give a seminar. At A&M, Brooks served as Oceanography Department Head and Associate Dean for Research in the College of Geosciences. His research focused on the Gulf Stream, the Gulf of Mexico and the Gulf of Maine, with observations of circulation and hydrography, and computer models of currents and tides. He organized research cruises in the Gulf of Maine aboard Texas A&M’s ship R/V Gyre, with participation by scientists and students at Bigelow and the University of Maine. He has published numerous scientific articles, essays, reviews and editorials related to ocean issues. He served as editor of The Oceanography Report for the American Geophysical Union, and later as founding editor of Oceanography Magazine for The Oceanography Society.

He and his wife Anne have been summer residents in West Boothbay Harbor since 1981. They have two daughters and six lively grandchildren, all sailors and boaters, and one lively granddog, Maple Syrple.