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We regret that Brooks Herndon passed away this past June 3rd from health complications after a fall. Brooks was the oldest in our class. He was living in Seattle where he was designing and preparing to start production of a unique airplane that could be driven on the highway, operated on the water as a boat, and flown as a 4 passenger jet aircraft for long distances. Brooks had a most unusual mind. His accomplishments were many. He served with the Peace Corps two years in Bolivia. He was a world renowned Luthier (builder of stringed instruments). With this skill he was the only person in history to have created a violin that not only matched the famed Stradivarius, but exceeded it. Brooks held several patents, including one on a unique jet engine and several others on overcoming friction. He was also the head of an international organization supporting the FORTH computer language and gave an acclaimed talk at an international FORTH conference in Moscow. FORTH is a unique language used by the navy and astronomers to control telescopes and cameras, among other tasks. Brooks could have been a multimillionaire from many of his inventions and concepts. However, The discovery was the thing for him, and once proven he moved on to the next challenge. A team has been formed to carry on the aircraft concept and put it into production. Brooks’ sister, Carol, graduated from Center in ‘62, and taught in several Center District elementary schools for 25 years. She is living in Sunrise Beach, MO.
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Mike Finucan
Carol, sorry for your family and your loss. I will say that the world is a little less for Brooks passing. I remember him well as one of the more passionate guys, and I remember well how he helped me with a project to give a presentation at school concerning cars, and I was amazed at how much material he was able to let me use for the presentation. I so regret not getting in touch with him later in life. I hope that he was in good health all the way through his trip of life. I would very much have loved to talk to him and see his work on the violin and the approach he had to the similarities of Stradivarius. I have one at a mansion here not far from me, and I have been with a couple of people who have played them, and the sound is exquisite and it would have been great to hear about the building of his instrument and hearing it. Asperity, that probably was of great interest to him, for many reasons, not the least the violin. Boliva, now that was not what I would have expected, but, again, sorry to hear of him leaving us, and I pay my respects.
Ron Schauble
Hi Mike,
Regarding Brooks…
I forwarded your note to his sister. She is in Houston with family for the holidays and they will all wish to read it. Brooks was well liked by all.
Violin: Brooks said all others that tried to copy the Stradivarius did so by trying to use the same wood, same glues, same techniques, etc. He reasoned this was the wrong approach. He told me once what he did but I do not remember the details. The link in the In Memory posting and email to the violin article has more information. Basically, he analyzed the fine points of the original, then created parts of a violin to maximize these significant items, a totally different approach. He took one to the woman that was the 1st violin at the KC Symphony at the time for her to try. She played it then stood back in awe and said it was the finest instrument she had ever played, and she either did own a stradivarius or had played one. Brooks made eight violins. Unfortunately these were sold by some people after Brooks death who did not know what they were. The family is trying to locate and rec over at least one. One thing that makes it hard to duplicate the sounds of old violins is that they were built and tuned differently. Around the early 19th century violins were made stronger to allow increased tensioning of the strings.
Brooks was an avid follower of the European car industry and races, when most in the US thought the Indy 500 was top of the food chain. I was reading about his pulse jet engine patent. Pulse jets were used on the V-1 rockets. A pulse jet works by igniting the fuel/air mixture and at the same time closing doors in the front to send the burnt gases out the back. That is why the V-1 buzzed. Racing car exhausts are cut to a certain length, i.e., “tuned”, to create a pressure wave that assists the emissions. Brooks was familiar with this technology from Formula 1 cars. He used that concept to create a standing wave in the intake of the combustion tube to restrict the exhaust gases to flowing out the back.
Brooks joined the Peace Corps when it was offered as an alternative to the draft. After his two years in Bolivia he returned and the Army tried to draft him. He successfully won a lawsuit upholding the fact that he had fulfilled his military commitment through the Peace Corps as authorized by the US Government at the time he joined. He won. Brooks realized the futility and stupidity of that war.
We kept in touch although I had not talked to him in his last 6 months.
Ron Schauble
Mike Finucan
Thanks Ron for the reply and a little history of what Brooks had been doing. I am so proud to have known him, along with you, and many others of our class as well, and that he achived what he did, shows a great mind, and I was lucky to have known him. So many fields he worked with, after what you have told me. I wish you and all a Merry Christmas and New Year.
Becky Ryan (Ross)
What an incredible life. Brooks was very accomplished in so many fields. I wish I had known him as an adult. He was brillant and I am proud to have known him in high school. Becky Ryan Ross
Joel Ray
Dear sweet Brooks; I was honored to know him and so sad to hear of his passing . We were both kind of nerdy except that I got mostly A’s and he got C’s bc he didn’t much see the point of homework. His teachers loved him but were mystified by him, Brooks for sure being a horse of a different color. We formed an ad hoc tennis team which included Barbara Greenbaum and Don Drover, the bunch of us cavalierly sneaking onto the courts at Leawood Country Club to play.
Always the dreamer it was unsurprising to learn he was a luthier in Westport at our 20th reunion. We were catch as catch can over the years but I’m so glad that he left such a wonderful legacy. Brooks was kind and gentle and we’re all blessed to have had him in our lives.