Brookes Morin

1949 - 2024

Brookes Morin

September 22, 1949 - May 22, 2024

Brookes Marshall Morin (age 74) died on May 22, 2024, in Wolf Creek, MT, while flyfishing the Missouri River. He was born in Hanover, NH, in 1949 and attended the Hanover schools before transferring to and graduating from Holderness School. He attended Brown University and upon graduation, he headed west to Jackson, WY. After several years in Jackson (where he met Susan Little, his future wife), he moved to Montana and became a long-time resident of Helena.

Brookes was a superb athlete who excelled in alpine ski racing (skiing for New England championship winners Hanover High School and Holderness Academy; he also competed in the Junior Nationals). In soccer, Brookes started as a seventh grader on the first ever Hanover HS soccer team and was very successful in school tennis and golf competitions. At Brown, Brookes was a major contributor to the success of the soccer team and became one of the career highest scorers. He especially enjoyed scoring a hattrick against Dartmouth College, the team he grew up watching in his hometown of Hanover. For his goal-scoring efforts, he received All-New England honors.

Brookes first fished for trout at the waterfall on Mink Brook in Etna as a 6 year old. He used worms for bait. He graduated to fly fishing during summer evening visits to Norford Lake in Norwich, VT, and the White River in Hartford, VT. His fly fishing expanded to the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming during family camping trips to the west in the early 1960s. But his passion for fly fishing for trout blossomed in Jackson, WY. Many in Helena knew him as "The Trout Whisperer" and the fisherman who lovingly named each fish he caught. Those close to him think he recognized and remembered them by name. Other nicknames included Brookie, Brook Trout, Broody, and Brood.

Brookes was also a long-time birder, having started that hobby as a young boy and leading local bird walks as a teenager. He found two noteworthy species during his years in the west. In 1974, he heard and saw the first documented blackburnian warbler reported in the state of Wyoming, and in the 1990's a storm blew into Helena from the east bringing with it a prothonotary warbler that Brookes found the next morning in his yard, the first observation of this species in Montana.

In Jackson, he met, then married, Susan Little in 1976 (divorced in 1991). The couple moved to Missoula, MT, where Brookes obtained an MBA, before settling in Helena in 1979 and raising two children, David Brookes Morin and Laura (Morin) Holien. Their first son Michael was born in August of 1979 with birth defects (neural tube defect and spina bifida) and died in November of the same year. Brookes worked for the Legislative Auditor's office at the State during this time, then worked for the City of Helena as Assistant City Manager. He coached the Capital High men's and women's JV soccer teams, while assisting with both varsity teams. He cared deeply about the less fortunate and spent time managing Helena Industries, which provided jobs to neurodivergent employees.

Later in his life he managed the Lewis and Clark County Fairgrounds and then worked at Fox Ridge Golf Course. After retiring he loved to travel to New Zealand to fly fish for months at a time where he made many good friends and memories.

Brookes spent countless hours teaching numerous children of Helena (along with his grandchildren) how to fly fish and correctly kick the soccer ball. He was very passionate about teaching the knuckle ball (kicking the ball so well that it had no spin). He volunteered to coach several HYSA Arsenal soccer teams of all genders and ages and continued to tell stories of these times daily. He helped with the Great Divide Ski team when his children raced. He stayed passionate about watching sports his whole life and loved to discuss the English premier league, national soccer teams, tennis, and ski racing with his family and friends.

A couple of his most cherished trips included the gifts he gave his children for their college graduations. He took Dave to helicopter ski in Portillo, Chile and he took Laura to watch the Ironman Triathlon World Championships in Kona, Hawaii. He left a handwritten letter to Dave and Laura about just how much he treasured those trips as well as being their father.

In the last ten years of his life, he found an entire community and family at the local coffee shop, FireTower Coffee House. He enjoyed everyone there so much that he often went twice a day. What a beautiful community we have here in Helena, MT. He also loved to attend his grandkids soccer games every chance he could and hang out with family at Oro Fino. If he wasn't at these places, he was out fishing the Mo and his favorite small streams with his good friends. It gives us all comfort that his final outing was in a favorite place with one of his best friends.

He was an avid reader and owned hundreds of books. Every Christmas and birthday, he loved to give his grandkids books from the Montana Book Company. He would spend hours picking out what he thought was the perfect one for each of them. He dropped the r's and affectionally dubbed himself, Gampa Books and signed the books accordingly. He was so well read that perhaps one of his greatest gifts was that he could say so little and mean so much. We are all the better for the wisdom he passed on to us.

Brookes is preceded in death by his parents Lawrence J. and Barbara A. Morin and infant son, Michael. He is survived by his brother, Larry (Peggy) Morin, children David (Brit) Morin and Laura (Dave) Holien, grandchildren Leif and Emmi Holien, Ansel, Austin and Lumi Morin, and nieces Abby (Brian) McNally and Jennifer Morin.

To our wonderful dad and Gampa Books: Thank you for teaching us the love of all living things and the beauty of the outdoors. Thank you for the poems in our shin guards and always telling us to follow our hearts and stay true to ourselves. Thank you for teaching us compassion for the oppressed and to love unconditionally. Thank you for telling us to dare to dream even when the path forward seemed difficult. Thank you for fighting so hard to always be there for us even when you suffered. We will look for your beautiful soul in the birds, streams, and mountains around us. We will carry your memory with us always and yearn to be the kind and loving person you were. We love you and miss you.

Memorial donations to honor Brookes' life can be made to the Helena Youth Soccer Association, the Great Divide Ski Team, and the New Hampshire Audubon Society. It would make him most happy if you embraced the outdoors, especially the fish and birds, and visited Firetower Coffee House. While there, make new friends and enjoy a Brookes Mocha in his memory. Simple Cremation assisted the family and they gathered in the summer to have a beautiful celebration of his life.