CHICAGO, IL, March 11, 2019 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Marquis Who's Who, the world's premier publisher of biographical profiles, is proud to present Thomas Kimball Brooker, PhD, with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. An accomplished listee, Dr. Brooker celebrates many years' experience in his professional networks, and has been noted for achievements, leadership qualities, and the credentials and successes he has accrued in his fields. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Since 1989, Dr. Brooker has been President of Barbara Oil Company, originally an exploration and development oil and gas company headquartered in Chicago. Founded in 1888 by Charles B. Shaffer with producing properties in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, the private family owned company changed direction in 1990 after settling an important law suit and redirected its activities to become primarily an investment company. Previously Dr. Brooker had been a Managing Director of Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated, where he was the head of its Chicago office and responsible for the twelve state Midwest region. He began his career at Morgan Stanley in New York in 1968 working in the Corporate Finance Department and was promoted to Vice President in 1973 and then Managing Director in 1976. In New York his primary responsibilities related to project financings, principally oil and gas pipelines, including the Alaskan oil pipeline, the Alaskan and Canadian Arctic Gas Pipeline project, and the Mexican gas pipeline from Reynosa Field to Texas. In 1978, he was tasked with organizing Morgan Stanley's first domestic branch office in Chicago. There, besides managing the office, he was responsible for the investment banking operations of existing relationships and developing new clients. He managed to win over a host of new clients including Oscar Mayer, Sunbeam, Searle, Allen Bradley, Parker Pen, Combined Insurance (later AON), Brady Corporation, and others.
Involved with the Midwest Stock Exchange (later renamed Chicago Stock Exchange) as a member of the board of directors and ultimately Vice Chairman, he also served on the board of directors of the public companies Zenith Electronics Corporation, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., and Boulevard Bank Corporation as well as the private companies Miami Corporation, Cutler Oil & Gas, and Barbara Oil Company.
Outside of his business activities, Dr. Brooker achieved success in his scholarly and philanthropic pursuits. Having developed a life long interest in fifteenth and sixteenth century books and manuscripts while at Yale University (B.A. 1962), he continued this interest by collecting books of this period and through his associations with rare book libraries. He is a Trustee of the Morgan Library and Museum in New York and the Newberry Library in Chicago and has served as a Governor of the John Carter Brown Library in Providence. In addition, he serves as a member of the Visiting Committee of the University of Chicago Library and a similar committee at the Yale University Library as well as previously the head of the Scholarly Committee of the Bibliotheca Wittockiana in Brussels. He served as Vice Chairman and then Chairman of the Trustees of the Yale Library Association, the name of the Yale University Library's Visiting Committee, as well as Chairman of the Committee of the Library for the President of Yale's Council. His interest in early books and libraries provided the subject matter for three advanced university degrees: at Harvard Business School his M.B.A. Master's thesis dealt with "Rare Books as a Hedge against Devaluation and Inflation"; at the University of Chicago his master's paper in the History of Art Department treated "The Diffusion of Binding Styles in the Sixteenth Century between Italy and France"; and his doctoral dissertation at the University of Chicago was titled "Upright Works: The Emergence of the Vertical Library in the Sixteenth Century". Since then, he has written numerous articles on similar subjects published in scholarly journals or volumes, edited four scholarly texts dealing with bibliophilic matters, and written a book titled "Index of the Best Books" dealing with the list of books that the librarian of Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle, an important prelate and diplomat, prepared for him in 1547 to assist in the creation of Granvelle's library, one of the largest in Europe at the time. (A list of his publications is below).
In addition to Dr. Brooker's involvement with rare book libraries, he has been active in bibliophilic societies, their governance and their scholarly endeavors. As a long time member of the Grolier Club of New York (since 1962), he served on its Council for ten years, first as Chairman of the House Committee from 1969 to 1970 and then as Chairman of the Finance Committee from 1971 to 1979. Also a long time member (since 1965) of the Association Internationale de Bibliophilie, a French organization headquartered in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, he has served on its Conseil d'Administration (Board of Directors) since 1989 and as its President from 2006 to 2013, now holding the title of Président d'Honneur. He is one of very few Americans ever to have been elected a member of the Société des Bibliophiles François, an organization founded in 1820. He is also a member of the Société Royale des Bibliophiles et Iconophiles de Belgique and the Caxton Club of Chicago. As a result of his scholarly publications, he was elected a corresponding member of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Telmo in Spain in 2000 and of the Académie des Sciences, Belles Lettres et Beaux Arts de Besançon in France in 2017.
Obtaining a Bachelor of Arts in French Literature from Yale University in 1962, Dr. Brooker completed service as a lieutenant in the supply corps of the United States Navy from 1962 to 1966. He continued his academic efforts at Harvard University, graduating with a Master of Business Administration in 1968. Dr. Brooker concluded his studies with a Master of Arts in 1989 and a Doctor of Philosophy in art history at the University of Chicago in 1996.
While a Senior at Yale, Dr. Brooker accepted the Adrian Van Sinderen Prize in 1962. Established in 1957 by Adrian Van Sinderen, the award encourages undergraduate students to collect books, build their own libraries and read for pleasure and education. Dr. Brooker created and endowed a similar award for second and fourth year students at the University of Chicago in 1994. Dr. Brooker was also presented with the Sir Thomas More medal for book collecting from the University of California in 1982, an award bestowed on major collectors from the United States and Europe.
Dr. Brooker has been featured in approximately 70 editions of Who's Who, including Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the World and Who's Who in Finance and Business between 1988 and 2016.
BOOKS
T. Kimball Brooker, Index of Best Authors by Subject Classification Compiled in 1547 by Antoine Morillon for Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle. Including a Selection of Greek Manuscripts in the Library of Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, New York, Jerry Kelly, 2014.
T. Kimball Brooker & Carol Z. Rothkopf, eds., Association Internationale de Bibliophilie, Actes et Communications / International Association of Bibliophiles, Transactions XXVth Congress, New York City & Post-Congress, Chicago, 2007, New York, Jerry Kelly, 2011.
T. Kimball Brooker & Carol Z. Rothkopf, eds., Association Internationale de Bibliophilie, Actes et Communications/International Association of Bibliophiles, Transactions, XXVIth Congress, Austria, 2009, New York, Jerry Kelly, 2017.
T. Kimball Brooker, ed., Association Internationale de Bibliophilie, Actes et Communications/International Association of Bibliophiles, Transactions, Poland. XXVIlth Congress, Krakow & Warsaw & Post-Congress, Toruń, Peplin & Gdansk, 2011, New York, Jerry Kelly, 2017.
T. Kimball Brooker, ed., Association Internationale de Bibliophilie, Actes et Communications/InternationalAssociation of Bibliophiles, Transactions, XXVlIIth Congress, Munich, Regensburg, Augsburg, Eichstätt, & Neuberg and Post-Congress, Nuremberg, Bamberg, Pommersfelden & Erlangen, 2013, New York, Jerry Kelly. 2019.
ARTICLES
T. Kimball Brooker, "Paolo Manutio's Use of Fore-edge Titles for Presentation Copies (1540-1541)," The Book Collector, Spring 1997, pp. 27-68 and Summer 1997, pp. 193-209.
T. Kimball Brooker, "Bindings Commissioned for Francis I's 'Italian Library' with Horizontal Spine Titles Dating from the Late 1530s to 1540," Bulletin du Bibliophile. 1997, pp. 33-91.
T. Kimball Brooker, "Who Was L.T.?," The Book Collector, Winter 1998, pp. 508-519 and Spring 1999, pp. 32-53.
T. Kimball Brooker, "Giorgio Uzielli, 5 June 1905 -28 November 1984," Grolier 2000: A Further Grolier Club Biographical Retrospective in Celebration of the Millennium 2000, New York, The Grolier Club, 2000, pp. 383-386.
T. Kimball Brooker, "Bernard H. Breslauer (July 1, 1918 -August 14, 2004)," Bulletin du Bibliophile, 2006, pp. 144-152.
T. Kimball Brooker, "Identifying Books by Colors," Bibliophilies et reliures: Mélanges offerts à Michel Wittock, Brussels, 2006, pp. 65-107.
T. Kimball Brooker, "Bindings Commissioned for Francis I's 'Italian Library' with Horizontal Spine Titles Dating from the Late 1530s to 1540. A Supplement," Comites Latentes, per gli otlanta anni di Francesco Malaguzzi, Torino, 2010, pp. 35-41.
T. Kimball Brooker, "Student Book Collecting Contests Sponsored by American Colleges and Universities," Bulletin du Bibliophile, 2012, pp. 217-227.
T. Kimball Brooker, "The Institut de France and the Bibliothèque Mazarine: Seventeenth-Century Cultural Treasures," The Grolier Club: Iter Gallico-Helveticum: A Bibliophilic Tour of Paris & Alsace & Geneva, New York, The Grolier Club, 2013, pp. 35-41.
T. Kimball Brooker, "The Library of Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle," Bulletin du Bibliophile, 20l5. pp.23-72.
T. Kimball Brooker. "André Jammes and Aldine Press Bibliographies, Published and Unpublished," Le Livre, La Photographie, L 'Image & La Lettre: Essays in Honor of André Jammes, eds., Sandra Hindman, Isabelle Jammes, Bruno Jammes & Hans P. Kraus Jr., Paris, Editions des Cendres. 2015, pp. 107-122.
T. Kimball Brooker, "Bernard M. Rosenthal (May 5, 1920 - January 14, 2017)", Bulletin du Bibliophile, 2018
T. Kimball Brooker, "Aldine Editions Were Seen as Very Special throughout Five Centuries", Gazette of the Grolier Club, [Forthcoming]
In recognition of outstanding contributions to his profession and the Marquis Who's Who community, Thomas Kimball Brooker, PhD, has been featured on the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement website. Please visit www.ltachievers.com for more information about this honor.
About Marquis Who's Who®
Since 1899, when A. N. Marquis printed the First Edition of Who's Who in America®, Marquis Who's Who® has chronicled the lives of the most accomplished individuals and innovators from every significant field of endeavor, including politics, business, medicine, law, education, art, religion and entertainment. Today, Who's Who in America® remains an essential biographical source for thousands of researchers, journalists, librarians and executive search firms around the world. Marquis® now publishes many Who's Who titles, including Who's Who in America®, Who's Who in the World®, Who's Who in American Law®, Who's Who in Medicine and Healthcare®, Who's Who in Science and Engineering®, and Who's Who in Asia®. Marquis® publications may be visited at the official Marquis Who's Who® website at www.marquiswhoswho.com.
# # #