[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 24 (Wednesday, February 5, 2020)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E133-E134]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         HONORING JERRY BROOKS

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. GREG STANTON

                               of arizona

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 5, 2020

  Mr. STANTON. Madam Speaker, I rise to honor the life and legacy of 
Jerry Brooks, former mayor of Chandler, Arizona, who

[[Page E134]]

passed away Tuesday, January 14, 2020. A Vietnam veteran and 
renaissance man, Mayor Brooks served in the U.S. military for 30 years. 
His greatest legacy as mayor was establishing the Chandler Performing 
and Visual Arts Center, a welcoming and innovative performance space 
that bonds our community together through arts and culture.
  Jerrell W. Brooks was born in San Antonio, Texas, on November 23, 
1930, to Marion and Viola Brooks. After moving to Arizona as a child, 
Brooks attended Phoenix Union High School. Just shy of graduation, 
Brooks enlisted in the U.S. Marines after being inspired by those who 
served in the second World War. After his discharge in 1950, Brooks 
returned to Arizona and completed a construction engineering degree at 
Arizona State University in 1954. Following graduation, he was 
commissioned in the U.S. Air Force through the university's ROTC 
program. Brooks retired as a colonel after serving in Vietnam, in 1977 
after 30 years of service.
  Brooks moved to Chandler in his retirement and began to observe that 
the city's infrastructure could not keep pace with rapid growth and 
development in the community. It inspired him to become active in local 
politics. Brooks won a seat on the Chandler City Council in 1982 and 
was elected mayor just two years later. True to his word, during his 
four-year term as mayor, Mayor Brooks paved roads, built 
infrastructure, and annexed land in south Chandler to build new streets 
and utility infrastructure to serve future residents of the city.
  His lasting legacy and the crown jewel of Chandler is the Chandler 
Performing and Visual Arts Center. Mayor Brooks advocated and fought 
for a performing arts center that would attract new employers, 
entertainers, and families to Chandler and transfonn a quiet 
agricultural town into a thriving, family-friendly, diverse and 
welcoming community. He lived to see his vision come to fruition. 
Future generations of Chandler residents will undoubtedly be affected 
by the cultural opportunities available in their own city thanks to 
Mayor Brooks' vision for the Center.
  Thank you to Mayor Brooks, and Godspeed.

                          ____________________