In Support of Steve’s Family as They Navigate his Passing

My dad, Stephen “Steve” Brooks, passed away early Tuesday morning July 2, 2024. While we are all grateful he is no longer in pain, he is gone far too soon and is already dearly missed. He was an incredibly hardworking, brilliant and caring man. He will forever be the example of the type of person I strive to be. He was a natural problem solver and primarily self-taught in everything he did. He was a drill sergeant for a tank unit at Ft. Knox when he met and married my mother. A short while after being honorably discharged for the Army in 1976, he began educating himself computer repair. When I was growing up, he was forever learning a new programming language, networking process or whatever was necessary to reach the next step in his career. He spent over two decades with Memorex Telex first as a computer engineer, then network engineer and finally a systems engineer, from only having had a handful of night classes at Jefferson State Community College. It was through his work with Memorex Telex that he met Birmingham Police Officer, Doug McBee, who came to be known in our home as Uncle Doug. Soon after meeting, over many months of long nights...and much coffee, with Uncle Doug as the law enforcement advisor, he wrote the first computer program used by Crimestoppers to cross-reference crimes by using the individual elements of each crime. He did this for free, on his own time, because he saw a problem in the way these crimes and tips were tracked and envisioned the solution.

The second half of his career, prior to the onset of his illness, was spent at Baptist Health Systems as a Project Manager. The cruelty of dementia isn’t just in the years it stole, but the brilliance, contributions and kindness it robbed us of as well. I can never repay his wife, Angela, and my brother, Taylor, for the care they gave him in his final years. Their working together to provide his care meant he was able to pass at home, at it was no small sacrifice on their part. For as long as I can remember, Angela has been a passionate part of the local library’s children’s section as well as a youth leader and children’s church program organizer. My brother also worked full time while arranging his schedule to always be available to care for my father when Angela had to work. …and they have maintained this high-stress caregiving balancing act for years.

Now, with their savings exhausted, they face cremation expenses and unpaid medical bills from my father’s extended hospitalization that began in April, when he broke his hip.

My hope is that through your generosity, they can get a much-needed and well-deserved helping hand to climb out from under this debt. My work position also does not come with any paid time off. So, this would also make it possible for me to make the trip down to help them with tasks like resetting the house once all of the medical equipment is removed, yard work and other tasks they haven’t had the bandwidth for. It would mean the world for me to be able to show up for them in a way that is even a fraction of what they have done for me in caring for my Dad. Any amount is a blessing and truly appreciated.