Harland Brooks, Business Founder

In his last weeks of life, even Harland Brooks' closest friends did not know how sick he really was.

On Opening Day of the Seattle Mariners baseball season - a game he has never missed - he pulled his motor home into a special spot reserved in the Kingdome parking lot. Too ill to walk to his seat, he watched and cheered for his team on a television set.

"It was as close as he could get," said William McInerney, Mr. Brooks' attorney and an old friend.

Mr. Brooks, 67, died Saturday (April 24) in Bellevue of cancer.

Founder and co-owner of Brooks-McKnight Chevrolet in Bellevue, Mr. Brooks was an avid sports fan and particularly loved baseball.

"He was a tremendous individual. I don't think I ever met a man who didn't like him," said Mariner broadcaster Dave Niehaus, a longtime friend.

Niehaus said Mr. Brooks was the first person to befriend him when he moved to Seattle in 1977. "I'll miss him dearly."

Niehaus said Mr. Brooks even went to spring training this year in Arizona and it wasn't until then that Niehaus learned of his cancer.

Born in Spokane, Mr. Brooks grew up in Seattle's University District during The Depression. The youngest of six children, he earned money to help support his family as early as age 9 by working a paper route.

He also worked in a butcher shop on Capitol Hill, riding his bicycle there from his home in Laurelhurst.

A University of Washington graduate, he was active in

intramural track and football and developed a love for the Huskies. He was a 25-year member of the Tyee Club.

Mr. Brooks served in the Army Air Corps and the Navy Intelligence Branch during World War II and, in 1954, moved his family to Bellevue and went to work for Metke Ford, where he was one of the company's top salesmen.

In 1969 he and Jack McKnight founded what later became Brooks-McKnight Chevrolet in Bellevue. Mr. McKnight died in February.

Mr. Brooks was known for his ability to quickly earn customers' trust. "He had real charm and charisma," said his son, Greg Brooks, who has taken over the business.

Mr. Brooks' business grew as the town of Bellevue became a thriving city, and he often sponsored youth sports teams, said McInerney.

He was a member of the Glendale Golf and Country Club and the Princeville Golf Club in Kauai, Hawaii.

Mr. Brooks is survived by his wife, Nancy, brother, William; sisters Josephine and Isabelle; and his children, Sandra Brooks Biddle of Bellevue, Beverly Brooks of West Palm Beach, Greg Brooks of Bellevue, Brian Brooks of Seattle and Dan Brooks of Paris. He had seven grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held tomorrow at 11 a.m. at Glendale Country Club.

The family asks that remembrances be sent to the University of Washington Hospital Cancer Research Foundation.