Relatives here in Simcoe
were notified last Friday evening [21 Jan 1921]
of the sudden death of Justice F. L. Brooke that afternoon.
He had been indisposed for a
day or so and was on a Rapid Electric Car from Detroit to his summer
home at St. Clair. The cause of death was an apoplectic seizure
which took place as the car approached Mt. Clemens. Burial was in
Detroit.
Judge Brooke married twice.
By his first wife, nee Miss Bridget Reidy, there were three
children, who survive. His second marriage took place a few weeks
ago.
He was born in 1858, at
Marburg in Woodhouse Township, Norfolk County, attended Simcoe High
School and graduated from Albert College in Belleville. After
studying law, he went to practice his profession in Detroit, where
he made a great success.
He was elected to the
Supreme Court Bench of Michigan in 1908, and at the time of his
death he was serving a term that would have expired 31 Dec 1923.
On Monday the Detroit
Free Press spoke editorially of the deceased jurist as follows:
"In the long list of
Canadians who have taken notable parts in the advancement of the
State of "Michigan, few could be ranked with Justice Flavius L.
Brooke. His death makes a vacancy in the Supreme Council that will
not be easily filled.
"Coming to Detroit as a
young man, Judge Brooke associated himself with two notable members
of the Michigan bar: John Atkinson, perhaps the most brilliant trial
lawyer Detroit has possessed, and Isaac Marston, who came to this
state from Ireland a lonely immigrant boy and completed his career
as Judge Brooke did, on the bench of the Supreme Court.
Subsequently, Judge Brooke was a partner of William L. Carpenter,
who also became a justice of the Supreme Court. It is not unnatural
to suppose that with such associates in his earlier day, Judge
Brooks planned a similar career.
"An excellent lawyer,
Judge Brooke had wide experience at the bar before he took his place
on the Wayne circuit bench. Thus equipped, and by virtue of his
inborn unusual gifts as a trial Judge he quickly took his place as a
man of mark among the jurists of the state.
"Poise characterized
everything he did. If he sympathized with one side or the other in a
case no one could guess which. He was never hurried, never lost his
temper, was never overbearing and never lax. As a result, business
moved swiftly and quietly in his court.
"It was a loss to Wayne
County when Judge Brooke was raised to the highest court of the
state, but his record in this county and the well-founded reputation
as a jurist which he built, amply justified the promotion. He went
to a court which in its best day was not inferior to any similar
court in the country, and he fully maintained the great traditions
of that tribunal."
