Charles E. Brooks was born in Venice, Illinois on February 28, 1921. As a child of 9 he started fly fishing and tying flies. He joined the Army Air Corps in May 1942, and served as a bombardier during WWII before his demobilization in November, 1945. He married Grace Swanson Judd in July, 1946. He reentered the Air Force in 1947 and retired in 1964 as a Major in the Air Force Reserve. He was a member of the Air Force OSI, served in Alaska during the Korean War and spent time in Morocco in 1956. After retirement he moved to West Yellowstone, Montana where he fly fished, tied original flies, researched and wrote fishing articles and authored six books: Larger Trout for the Western Fly Fisherman (1970); The Trout and the Stream (1974); Nymph Fishing for Larger Trout (1976); The Living River (1979); Fishing Yellowstone Waters (1984) and The Henry's Fork (1986). Grace and Charles wintered in California where Charles died on October 30, 1986 and Grace died in March of 2002.
From the guide to the Charles E. Brooks Papers, 1921-2002, (Montana State University-Bozeman Library, Merrill G Burlingame Special Collections)
