Richard J. Brooks Papers, 1956-2000

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).