B.V. Brooks Dies at 84: ‘He Loved Life’

By James Lomuscio

UPDATE (adds memorial service details) From world travel to investing in Broadway shows to boating to tooling around on his motor scooter to creating crossword puzzles to taking weekly Latin dance lessons, B.V. Brooks, Westport’s iconic publisher and real estate magnate, was described by family members today as a man who loved life.

B.V. Brooks: publisher and real estate investor Contributed photo

Brooks, known as Dexter to family and friends, died Wednesday, two days shy of his 85th birthday, in a Mexican hospital following a heart attack, his family said. He was stricken with another heart attack three days earlier while on a cruise ship which had left San Francisco bound for the Panama Canal. (See family-provided obituary here.)

“He was taken to a hospital in Cabo San Lucas (a city at the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula), and he was in and out of consciousness,” said Torrey D. Brooks of Weston, his son.

“He was in the hospital for several days, and he had rallied,” said Kay Brooks, B.V. Brooks’s wife of 25 years. “But on August 31st he had another heart attack, and he did not rally, and he died that afternoon.”

She said that services would be private. A celebration of his life will be held on Sunday, Sept. 18 from 3 to 6 p.m. at the Westport Woman’s Club, 44 Imperial Ave. All are welcome, the family said.

In addition to Torrey Brooks, Brooks had two other children from his first marriage: Scott Brooks of Westport and Dr. Wendy Brooks Harris of Weston. He also had two stepchildren from his marriage to Kay Brooks: Lorinda Frazer of Miami and Marc Frazer of Seattle.

“He had a great life,” Kay Brooks said, noting that her husband exuded a joie de vivre. “He was dancing at the captain’s party on the ship the night before he had the first heart attack.”

Torrey Brooks described his father as sharp minded, “someone who never really retired,” coming regularly to the family’s real estate business Brooks, Torrey & Scott, Inc. in Norwalk to keep tabs on the company his father, B.V. Brooks, Sr. had started.

Born Sept. 2, 1926 in Miami, according to Torrey Brooks, Babert Vincent Brooks, Jr., who preferred to be called B.V. or Dexter, was raised in Westport and attended Westport schools.

He transferred from Staples High School to the Deerfield Academy in Deerfield, Mass. before heading in 1943 to Dartmouth, where he later graduated with a master’s degree in business administration.

Upon graduation, according to Kay Brooks, her husband worked for various corporations before deciding to work for his father who had substantial local real estate holdings. In Westport, the Brooks family still owns the Compo Shopping Center, Westfair Center, Sconset Square and other commercial real estate along Post Road East.

In 1964, Brooks and his father decided on a new venture, publishing. They launched the Westport News because they were dissatisfied with the local paper at the time, The Westport Town Crier. Faced with stiff competition from the Westport News (which for a while became a daily during the 1966 New York newspaper strike), The Town Crier ceased publication in 1967.

According to Kay Brooks, Brooks and his father were amazed at how well the paper was received, and as its success grew, they bought the Fairfield Citizen News.

They later began the Darien News. That startup was equally successful, and the Brooks family bought out the floundering Darien Review, changing the name of the new publication to the Darien News & Review.

Soon afterwards they started the Greenwich News, all of which were under the banner of Brooks Community Newspapers (BCN).

During the mid-1970s, B.V. Brooks teamed up with friend Harry Lally, who was a key figure in running BCN.

Following Harry Lally’s death, the late Kevin Lally, Harry Lally’s son,  would take the reins as president of BCN, while Brooks remained the publisher, focusing more on the family’s real estate concerns.

Brooks also was active in community service as a trustee for Norwalk Hospital, chairman of the American Institute for Economic Research, and a trustee of the Media Research Center in Washington, D.C.

During its heyday in the1980s, BCN was rumored to be worth $25 million; however, in 1999 Brooks, who was involved in bankruptcy proceedings, sold the group to the Canadian-based Thomson Newspaper group for about $8 million. (In 2000, Thomson sold the papers to MediaNews Group which in turn sold them in 2008 to Hearst Corporation, the current owner.)

It was at that point that B.V. and Kay Brooks devoted more time to boating and world travel.

They also parlayed their money into investing in two highly successful Broadway shows, “Hairspray” and “The Producers.” Locally, they remained involved as top benefactors sponsoring the Westport Public Library’s Booked for the Evening awards.

Kay said it was when her husband met Will Shortz, the New York Times crossword puzzle editor and Booked for the Evening award recipient, that he became serious about a longtime interest he had in creating crossword puzzles.

“This was his hobby, and he produced two volumes of crossword puzzles that he self published,” said Kay Brooks.

In addition to creating puzzles, Kay Brooks said her husband’s other interests included riding—“wearing his three-price suit”—his Honda motor scooter around Westport and Norwalk. He also took weekly salsa dance lessons at Author Murray studios in Norwalk.

“He loved what he did, and he loved life,” she said. “He had a good ride.”

“He was very sharp, he loved what he did, and if you’re going to go and go on vacation at 85, tell me where I can sign up,” Torrey Brooks said.

James Lomuscio was editor of the Westport News under B.V. Brooks from 1997 to 1999