Brian S. Brooks

Brian Shedd Brooks worked as a newspaperman and then as college professor at the acclaimed School of Journalism at the University of Missouri. He is the grandson of Robert Rabb Shedd, the principal character in his first novel, Sergeant Shedd. Like his grandfather and many other of his ancestors, Brooks served the U.S. military in wartime. He earned a Bronze Star for meritorious service and an Army Commendation Medal while serving as information officer of the 3rd Brigade (Separate), First Cavalry Division, in Vietnam, 1971-72. In civilian life, he worked as a reporter, copy editor, editorial writer and night city editor at the Memphis (Tenn.) Press-Scimitar before returning to this alma mater, the Missouri School of Journalism, in 1974. There he became editor of the general-circulation newspaper, the Columbia Missourian, used by the school as a teaching laboratory. From 1997 to 1999, he took a leave of absence from the university and became the top editor of the European edition of Stars and Stripes, the U.S. military newspaper. There he directed that newspaper's coverage of the ongoing war in Bosnia, the U.S. bombing of Belgrade and the U.S. entry into Kosovo. He returned to Missouri in 1999 and in 2002 was named associate dean of the Missouri School of Journalism. He retired in 2012 but continues to work for the school part-time. He is the co-author of four leading journalism textbooks.