subject: Brooks Entered The Army In World War Ii, Computer Enthusiast Dies In Walnut Creek House Fire [print this page] WALNUT CREEK -- When Keith Brooks JrWALNUT CREEK -- When Keith Brooks Jr. checked his inbox Tuesday, the day after his father's death, he got a reminder that the 85-year-old never let technology pass him by.
"I came into work for a couple hours (Tuesday) morning and I had e-mail from him from the weekend," he said. "That was weird."
A few weeks earlier, his father had joined Facebook. The World War II veteran started working with computers when they were programmed by moving wires around, and he never stopped.
Keith Brooks Sr. was found dead Monday in a fire at his house in the 300 block of Drayton Court in Walnut Creek, according to the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District. The county coroner reported Tuesday that he died from smoke inhalation.
He was in a second-floor bedroom, where the fire began, according to a news release from the district. It took 17 firefighters about 20 minutes to bring the fire under control; it did about $150,000 in damage. The cause is still under investigation.
Born in San Bernardino, Brooks entered the Army in World War II and was put in an educational program at Stanford. But when the Army ran short of infantrymen, they were shipped out to Germany, said Herb Denny, a friend of Brooks who was in the program with him.
Brooks had learned to drive a truck in the Forest Service, so the Army made him a Jeep driver, Denny said.
"He was a great guy ... a very very quiet person," Denny said. "Just a careful considerate kind of guy."
One of his trips was with other members of the 86th Blackhawk Infantry Division. He created and maintained the webpage for the now-disbanded division's association of veterans.
After graduating with a degree in business from UC Berkeley, he worked for four decades at the Breuners furniture store. He and his wife, who died six years ago, raised their two sons in Walnut Creek.
He worked in accounting and insurance -- and brought computing technology to the company when it was still brand new, Brooks Jr. said.
After he retired, he stayed active at St. Matthew's Lutheran Church in Walnut Creek, Brooks Jr. said, and would often come over to his son's house on Sunday afternoons to watch sports.
