Harry B. Brooks
1877– 1944

Inducted May 6, 1962

For 40 years, no editorial voice was more influential in directing Montana public opinion than that of Harry B. Brooks. During his decade with the Great Falls Tribune he was among the most widely quoted Montana editors.

President Roosevelt in 1937 praised him as an editor “of more than usual ability.” Referring to a Brooks editorial titled “Balancing the Budget of Our National Resources,” the president declared that “this editor has written, in simple language that the layman can read and understand, a clear and accurate statement. It is so fine that it speaks my own mind better than I could speak it myself.”

“Balancing the Budget of Our National Resources” might also be called the philosophy of Harry Brooks through four decades of editorial leadership in Montana. Certainly no editor was more zealous in promoting the preservation and proper use of Montana’s resources.

In the field of Montana reclamation, he is credited with having been one of the principal advocates of construction of the Fresno Dam to store irrigation waters for the Milk River irrigation project. He was the first president of the organization that sought to secure the dam, and he gave the dedicatory address when the dam was completed in 1939.

He served as a member of the State Republican Central Committee, 1922-34; secretary of the Montana Crime Commission; and president of the Montana State Press Association, 1931-32. He was very active in civic affairs.

Brooks was born Jan. 15, 1877, at Renville, Minn. He studied on his grandfather’s farm, was graduated from high school when he was 14 and from the University of Minnesota four years later.

He began his newspaper career at Renville, and during April 1898 interrupted it to enlist in the Spanish-American War. He was mustered out of service the following December. In 1905 he moved to Chinook, where he worked on the Chinook Bulletin until purchasing the Chinook Opinion about a year later. In 1928 he became editor of the Havre Daily News and continued in that capacity until 1934, when he joined the staff of the Great Falls Tribune as an editorial writer.

He died of a heart attack while at work in the Tribune office in 1944.

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