The Blue Hill Adventures of the Brooks Family

In 1931, Blue Hill Observatory Director Charles Franklin Brooks (1891-1958) and his family moved into the Rotch house at the foot of Blue Hill, where they became involved in the activities of the community and the observatory. As the BHO grew in size and fame attracting visitors from around the world, the Brooks family served diplomatic roles as well as scientific leadership. Eleanor Stabler Brooks (1892-1986), a founding member of the American Meteorological Society, assisted her husband in steering the BHO through more than 26 years of productive meteorological research during the turbulent times of the Great Depression, World War II, the McCarthy era, the coming of WGBH to the hill and the dawn of the space age. This paper is based primarily on the letters of Charles F. Brooks and Eleanor S. Brooks.