Brooks Street - University of Oklahoma - Norman, Oklahoma - Oklahoma Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

Brooks Street

This part of the campus is named in honor of Stratton Duluth Books (1869-1949). Brooks was born in Everett, Missouri, grew up in Michigan, and studied at the Michigan State Norman School and at Harvard. He served as the superintendent of schools in Boston for six years before becoming the University’s third president in 1912.

At the time Brooks assumed office, the University’s reputation had just suffered a major blow. President David Ross Boyd and seven faculty members had been fired for political reasons in 1908; President Arthur Grant Evans, his successor, was also discharged after a change in governorship in 1911. In fact, considerable persuasion was required to convince Brooks, who was known for freeing the Boston public schools from political influence, to come to the University. As president, however, Brooks threw himself into the job. He established tenure and sabbatical leaves for faculty members, obtaining a guarantee that only the president could discharge a faculty member, subject to approval by the Board of Regents. He also expanded the University, both academically and physically.

Brooks played an important role in the acquisition of sixty acres of land which now contain Van Vleet Oval, and he oversaw the construction of numerous new buildings. The Schools of Chemical Engineering, Journalism, and Commerce and Industry (now the College of Business Administration) were organized during his presidency, as was the first student load fund. Brooks also saw the University through the University through the difficult years of World War I.

Although popular among faculty, students, and citizens, Brooks was disliked by Governor John C. Walton, who was inaugurated in 1923. Walton dismissed five of the seven regents, who had refused to fire the president, and another resigned. Brooks, however, accepted a job as the president of the University of Missouri before the new board could vote on his dismissal. Ironically, Governor Walton himself was impeached after less than a year in office. Despite these difficulties, Brooks continued throughout his life to possess a strong attachment to the University he had served so faithfully. He was buried in Norman along with his wife to be near their beloved University of Oklahoma.

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