Kenneth Corbin Brooks

Kenneth Corbin Brooks, an artist, entrepreneur, loving husband, father, veteran and longtime friend of Bill W., died Saturday, April 23 at the University of Rochester Hospital. He was 80.
Born to Corbin and Ruth Brooks, he entered the world in Bath, NY, on Dec. 12, 1941, five days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, four days after America entered World War II. Four siblings would join him while he crisscrossed the fields behind the small house at the end of Roosevelt Avenue to go swing through the sultry summer air on a rope and plunge into the muddy waters of the Conhocton River. He scrambled up the steep face of Mossy Bank, leading a string of skittish kids over the rocky cliff warmed in the sun to the tiny lookout where they dangled their feet in the haze, goggled at the village below and scratched initials on the cave wall.
He left Haverling High School behind to join the Air Force in February 1961. A medic, he found himself injected into the Vietnam War theater, treating the wounded -- and facing exposure to Agent Orange. It was a blight that engendered an enduring enmity for the VA and followed him to the end.
His ambition and intelligence and persistence shone through. He worked long hours in retail, ran a jackhammer, built a hamburger stand, started a small construction business, serviced a garbage route. He plunged his way through the plumbing code to master the trade. And that was just the beginning. He received a doctorate in metaphysical theology and a ministry certification in 2001.
He loved love. Marriage brought him two wonderful children, Jennifer and Jeffrey. It led him to the marvel of Ann Searles, though he lost her to cancer in 2006.
If Annie was the light of Ken's life, art was his guiding star. A painting of his from his high school days hung on his parents' living room wall. He kept an art studio in Rochester after he moved to the city in the early 1980s. His paintings have sold for thousands of dollars. His political cartoons are neon bright and fiery, bitingly acerbic.
Rochester marked another turn. On May 15, 1985, he gave up the drinking life. Alcoholics Anonymous led Ken to many new friendships and relationships. He became a mentor to many, a rock for them to lean on and, also, hands to help him when he himself had need.
Ken was predeceased by his parents. He leaves many behind. They include:
* Daughter -- Jennifer and Mark Etheridge, their son and his wife: Jared and Brittany (Phelps) Etheridge, sons Ezra and Jude, of Spout Springs, VA; their son C. Gabriel Etheridge, of Forest, VA; their son and his wife Caleb and Vanessa (Sick) Etheridge, children Avia and Declan, of Forest, VA; their son and his wife Joshua and Abigail (Perdew) Etheridge of Lynchburg, VA; and their daughter Karis Etheridge of Virginia.
* Son -- Jeffrey C. Brooks, spouse Kimberly, Jeff's children Grey, Carter, Claire and Ellis, all of Rochester.
Ken's siblings --
* Sister -- Jeanette Brooks Holmes of Manning, SC, Donald G. Holmes Sr., deceased; daughters Christine Martin and Tammy Margeson; son Rick Holmes and wife Bonnie; Donald G. Holmes Jr., deceased; Adam Scott Holmes, deceased.
* Sister Catherine and Lawrence Storm of Bath, NY; her children: son Matthew and wife Brandi Williams of Bath; daughter Valkyrie Williams of Pittsburgh, PA, and daughter Laura and Andrew McGuire of Bath.
* Brother – Paul Brooks and Deborah Haradon of Port Ewen, NY; their daughter Erica Haradon-Brooks of Mount Holly, NJ, her daughter Simone Erickson, also of Mount Holly; son Christopher Haradon-Brooks of Port Ewen, and son Colin Haradon-Brooks, also of Port Ewen.
* Brother Michael Brooks of Bath, daughter Lena and her son.
Arrangement for funeral services are incomplete.






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