Tristan Anthony ‘Tony’ Brooks
Tony Brooks passed away December 2, 2025 at his home in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Tony was born September 16, 1939 in Summit, NJ to Honour Souther Brooks and Charles Willes Brooks Y’35E. He became the older brother to Colin and Michael.
He joined our class from Kent School, rooming first in Farnam with Kent classmates Noel Hanf and Dick Ward, before moving on to a single in Branford College, where he was an active member of the hockey and football teams. He was also on the Yale Hockey and tennis teams, both for four years; the latter he captained his senior year. Tony was a member of Skull and Bones, Delta Kappa Epsilon and Yale Key. Tony was an English major.
Upon graduation, as planned, Tony entered the Navy and served two years as Lieutenant. With completion of service, he sought to use his English degree to land a literary position in New York City. But, as the lack of a warm reception or even an offer had him worried about his future and welfare, he gratefully accepted an introduction to investment banking with the First Boston Corp; in his words, “not a choice but a ‘life ring offer’” to a field he had no desire to get involved with. Ten years later he moved to Loeb Rhoades, then Salomon Brothers for 15 years, then a brief stint at First Boston again, and finally, he joined Lehman Brothers around 1990, retiring as their Global Head of Capital Markets in London in 1997. By then he felt he had achieved as much as he wanted or needed, both financially and professionally, and he wanted to answer more positively the question he posted in the Yale Class of 1962 25th Yearbook: “Are we really leaving this world better for our passing through?”
He also wanted to take a year as a ski bum, part of his original plan for post-Navy and pre-graduate school. Having married Linda Leith in 1964, being a ski bum was out then but now, with children out of the nest, they headed for Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where they had purchased a home in 1980 for vacations, and never left. As his first love was skiing, Tony spent every hour of every day he could on the slopes, often racing into his eighties.
Tony engaged in sailing, cycling, golf and hunting, and developed a love of photography. And he was involved not only as an athlete, but with donation of his time, resources and leadership. He served for many years on the boards of the National Outdoors Leadership School (NOLS), the Jackson Hole Land Trust, and the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. Many of the outdoors activities he delighted in sharing with his children and grandchildren. In the Yale Class of 1962 40th Yearbook Tony writes: “There is for us, a great feeling of peace in the outdoors, probably as a result of a farm upbringing and Harold Bloom’s class.”
Tony’s closing comments in the 40th Yearbook included: “From a personal viewpoint several things command our attention. First, family, recognizing our existence and realizing that there is only one chance to do it right… thus we have an increasing appreciation of ethics, and a concomitant increase our religious beliefs…. Nor have we lost our sense of adventure, the lure of the new and different.”
Tony leaves his wife Linda, brother Michael, and children Rhys and Leith, and eight grandchildren. He was predeceased by his brother Colin and son Charley, who tragically lost his life in an automobile accident at age 20. His daughter Leith is a member of the Yale Class of ‘95 and an uncle, George Brooks was in the Class of ’31. Memorial Services will be held at 3pm at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Jackson, Wyoming on February 6, 2026.
— John D. Hatch III