Alice Brooks

BROOKS

Alice Crowther



Alice Crowther Brooks, longtime resident of Ottawa Hills, Ohio, and Naples, Florida, died Friday, December 26, 2104, as a result of a stroke in Naples. Born on September 8, 1924, to Alice Malcolm and John Summerfield Crowther, Alice grew up in Ottawa Hills, graduating from Ottawa Hills High School in 1942. She graduated from Colby Junior College in New London, New Hampshire, in 1944. Upon her return to Toledo, she worked for the former Ryan, Sutherland and Company bond brokers until she married her husband of 66 years, Paul "Bill" Brooks, in 1948.

Alice was a resilient and self reliant woman who raised 3 sons, Michael, Thomas, and Malcolm. She also found time to serve non-profit organizations and was a board member of Sunset House and the Toledo Day Nursery. She served as chairman of the Toledo Country Club Ladies Golf Committee and was one of the top lady golfers at TCC. She enjoyed many years as a docent at the Toledo Museum of Art and was a member of the Junior League of Toledo. Alice and her family were parishioners at St. Michael's in the Hills Episcopal Church.

In the summers she organized the family vacations to Leland, Michigan, and often served as chauffeur when Bill needed to be picked up on Mackinac Island after the Chicago-Mackinac race. When he wasn't in a sailboat race she was his official first mate on their sailboats, Blue Lady and Mist. Alice and Bill enjoyed many happy weekends with family and friends sailing through the Lake Erie Islands and to Lake Huron and the North Channel. "Aunt Alice" was loved by all of her extended family and typically hosted both the Crowther and Brooks family Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve dinners. Their friends enjoyed her dinners of the pheasant and duck that Bill brought home from hunting trips.

After Bill's retirement from the Brooks Insurance Agency in 1988, they split their time between homes in Ottawa Hills and Wilderness Country Club in Naples where they lived until 2006 when they moved to Bentley Village in Naples.

Alice was preceded in death by her parents as well as siblings, John Elton, John Summerfield, Malcolm Page, James Bosley, and Caroline Page Crowther.

Surviving Alice are her husband, Paul; sons, Michael (Robin) of Ann Arbor, Thomas of Maumee, and Malcolm (Minh) of San Diego; grandchildren Sarah (Ruthanna), Andrew (Jennifer), and Elizabeth (Aaron), and great-granddaughter, Miriam. She will be fondly remembered by sister-in-law, Dora Crowther and many Crowther and Brooks nephews and nieces.

A memorial service will be held at a later date at St. Michael's. Tributes to Alice's life may be made to St. Michael's in the Hills, Toledo Day Nursery, or the Conservancy of Southwest Florida.