Bill Brooks, who worked for the University of California for 30 years, lastly as employee benefits manager at UC Davis, died Dec. 6 from the lung disease that he had been diagnosed with around the time of his retirement last July. He was 59.

Brooks

His was a job that put him in contact annually with many faculty and staff during open enrollment and, earlier this year, when everyone had to verify the eligibility of their family members for UC benefits.

“He took care of every incoming question, working with employees to alleviate their concerns about the verification project,” said Barbara Brady, communications director for Administrative and Resource Management, which takes in HR. “His helpfulness and professionalism were unparalleled.”

Upon his retirement last summer, the systemwide Our University newsletter asked Brooks and other new retirees: Of your accomplishments, which are you most proud of?

Brooks answered: “I am most proud that I’ve been able to help many people during a pivotal time in their lives, whether it’s their retirement or a disability or getting their new baby enrolled in insurance. That’s been the most rewarding part of my job.”

He began his UC career on the Santa Cruz campus; he started as a senior clerk in the registrar’s office, and eventually moved into benefits.

Gil Sebastian, benefits supervisor at UC Davis, recalled working with Brooks even before he left Santa Cruz for Davis in 2000. “The campus benefits folks get together annually for open enrollment training, and he was always there,” Sebastian said. “He was noticeable for his lightning-fast sense of humor and his thought-provoking questions.”

Indeed, he had become well known and respected throughout the entire UC system, according to Irene Horgan-Thompson, director of Compensation, Benefits, Employment and Temporary Employment Services. 

William Eames Brooks was born Oct. 1, 1953, in Battle Creek, Mich., and was 4 when he moved with his family to Cupertino. He finished high school back in Michigan, then moved to Santa Cruz to join his father in his metal fabrication business.

He and his two sisters took a trip together every summer, a week of “playing cards, playing dice, and laughing, laughing, laughing,” said his oldest sister, Jane Shifferd. She and "Billy," as she called him, and their sister, Carol Roe, took their last trip in 2012, to the Russian River.

That was in July, the month of Brooks’ retirement, around the same time he learned he had idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, or the scarring or thickening of the lungs without a known cause. He died just five months later at his Sacramento home, his sisters by his side.

Sadly, Brooks never had the opportunity to devote more time — as he had planned — as a volunteer with Sacramento’s Center for AIDS Research, Education and Services, or CARES. He had been a member of the CARES board of directors for many years.

His other interests included aviation (he had been a licensed pilot, of single-engine aircraft) and piano. “I started driving him to piano lessons when he was 6 or 7,” Shifferd said.

He was quite accomplished at the keyboard. “One of my fondest memories of him was at a BBQ I hosted for his retirement back in June of this year,” Sebastian said. “Just before he left, he sat at our piano and played, from memory, a beautiful composition by Jim Chappell called ‘Gone.’”

In his Our University interview, Brooks offered this advice to UC colleagues: “You never know what’s going on in someone else’s life, so it’s important to treat one another with care and respect. Oh, and remember to floss — also important!”

He is survived by his father and stepmother, William and Annette Brooks of Sun City West, Ariz.; sisters, Jane Shifferd of Surprise, Ariz., and Carol Roe of Santa Cruz; two nieces and a nephew, and three grandnieces and a grandnephew; and a cat, Marilyn.

Brooks had asked for a “party” to celebrate his life, and his sisters have complied: scheduling such an event from 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 5, in the ballroom at the Sterling Hotel, 1300 H St., Sacramento.

Remembrances may be made to a favorite charity.

Reach Dateline UC Davis Editor Dave Jones at (530) 752-6556 or dljones@ucdavis.edu.