In Memoriam
Samuel L. Brookfield, Jr.
Sam Brookfield
1964 Yale graduation
March 5, 2025
We learned that Sam Brookfield died on February 5, 2025. The notification and his obituary came from his sister Nancy Brookfield Burke. This page contains the following remembrances:
- An obituary provided by his sister Nancy Burke
- An essay written by Sam for our 60th Reunion
- An essay written by Sam for our 50th Reunion
Obituary
provided by Nancy Brookfield Burke
March 3, 2025
Sam Brookfield
recently
Sam was a member of the Yale Class of 1964. At Yale he lived in Pierson College, belonged to Zeta Psi fraternity, rowed lightweight crew, and majored in history.
After graduation he pursued a career in education and college counseling. He taught history and did college counseling at Pomfret School, Cheltenham in England, and at The Cranbrook School in Michigan. He also worked in the Yale Admissions Department in the early 1980s.
He was married to Pauline Persons Brookfield for 42 years and was the proud father of four children: Jonathan Lord Brookfield (Yale class of 1992), Chris, Alyce, and Sam J, and grandfather of six grandchildren.
When he and Pauline moved to NYC in the mid 80s, he changed careers and headed up the Business Council for the United Nations. He also volunteered at Street Squash, served on the Business School Board of Babson College, and later took a job at the Nigeria Higher Education Foundation.
He spent most of his vacations in the Adirondack Mountains and died
February 5, 2025, after a twelve-year struggle with Parkinson’s.
Essay, 60th Reunion Book
by Sam Brookfield ’64
May 2024
Parkinson's Disease (PD) is a progressive and pernicious neurological disease impacting all parts of one's body. Ten years ago my primary care physician suggested I might have PD because my left arm was often stiff when walking. He sent me to the foremost neurologist in NYC who confirmed the diagnosis of Parkinson's. I knew very little about PD. Much is written but much less is actually known about the Disease. Out of 100 cases there are 100 different progressions, and the good news is that my neurologist tells me the Disease in my case is progressing more slowly than anticipated. I expect to be around ten years from now; not cured, but more understanding of the affliction. Looking forward to seeing you in 2034.
Essay, 50th Reunion Book
by Sam Brookfield ’64
May 2014
I find writing this, like returning to reunion, very scary. Maybe it is the need to acknowledge the many years that have passed. I remember that anyone over 60 looked terribly old and now we are all over 70. Or more likely it is an uneasiness of not seeing so many for so long.
The move from high school to Yale was an easy transition. College life was not much different from boarding school, just more work and a freer lifestyle. I majored in history thanks to a high-school teacher and Yale’s extraordinary history department. It served me well. Other transitions were more difficult.
In the midst of senior year I realized I didn’t have a clue as to what I was going to do next. I was supposed to be a lawyer like my dad but that didn’t really grab me. Good advice from Sam Chauncey got me to look at boarding school teaching opportunities. I washed up on the shores of Pomfret School as history teacher, dorm master, and football, hockey and crew coach as others washed up on the shores of Vietnam, some not to return. I couldn’t believe that I was being paid $4,000/year to have so much fun, until the issues of drugs, race, coeducation, and war became more than a daily debate. From Pomfret I moved on to the Cranbrook Schools. Six years there were followed by a divorce and a year in Yale’s admission’s office. Then a new marriage that is now in its 31st year, and a move to Brooks School in N. Andover, MA. Now I was 40, time to grow up.
While at Brooks I was asked to become president of an NYC-based organization (the Business Council for the U.N.) that brought U.N. leaders and senior business executives together to better understand each other. In 1984 we moved to the Big Apple where we have been ever since. This work, which included travel to cities across the US spreading the UN word to corporate leaders, kept me busy for 20 years. Those were heady times as the Cold War world was transformed and we rubbed shoulders with Bush 41, Thatcher, Reagan, Gorbachev, and others.
My most recent assignment with the Nigeria Higher Education Foundation was fascinating and challenging, helping to develop alumni and fund-raising capacities of five Nigerian universities, without much success. However I did stumble across a classmate in Nigeria, Wole Odundun. Suddenly I am 70, time to reflect.
Throughout this journey I was supported by a wonderful and patient family. Four terrific children: Jon, an Eli and professor of Asian business at Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Chris, a managing director of a Washington-State-based micro-finance investment fund, Alyce, beginning the trek to becoming a medical doctor after an education MA from Harvard and opening an elementary school in Johannesburg, and Sam, beginning studies leading to an engineering master’s.
At the end of the day as the shadows lengthen and the evening comes, I recognize that the loving care and understanding devotion of my wife, Pauline, has made all the difference.
I am hopeful for future generations. I am struck by the breadth of their experience and how well that bodes for the future. While the history of war is so central to our lifetime from Vietnam forward, I am certain our children have the tools to overcome the messy world we are leaving. The question is how they use those tools. I look ahead to living long enough to have a hint of the answer.