Background
Born in Loris, South Carolina (near the Myrtle Beach area), Brooks grew up on a tobacco farm.
Born in Loris, South Carolina (near the Myrtle Beach area), Brooks grew up on a tobacco farm.
Clemson University.
He helped create the Hooters of America, Incorporated. restaurant chain that would eventually drive that company"s rapid expansion in the mid–late 1990s. A 1960 dairy science graduate of Clemson University, Brooks spent time in the United States Army before founding Naturally Fresh Foods, a condiment and salad dressing manufacturer in the Atlanta area, in 1967. He was raised as Methodist.
Brooks founded Hooters America, Incorporated., along with a group of investors.
He eventually got majority control and chairmanship of the entire organization. Under Brooks" leadership, Hooters expanded from half a dozen restaurants (in and around Clearwater, Florida) in the mid-1980s.
To over 430 stores worldwide (including Taiwan, Venezuela, and Switzerland). The company also included Hooters Air, an airline that ran from 2004 to 2006.
The Hooters Pro Cup (auto racing).
The Hooters Pro Tour (golf). The Hooters Casino Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, which opened in February 2006. And the Hooters MasterCard, which debuted in March 2006.
Brooks purchased the Hooters trademark from the company"s founders in 2001.
Brooks would still come up and visit the Atlanta headquarters on a weekly basis, though. Even after his retirement from Hooters, he was still affectionately known as the "World Wide Wing Commander" by company employees.
Brooks was a major donor to universities in South Carolina. The Robert H. Brooks Performing Arts Center at Clemson, completed during the 1993-1994 school year, was named in his honor following a large donation.
He also created the Brooks Motorsports Institute (now Brooks Institute for Sports Science), the first of its kind in the United States, at Clemson University about the study of the motorsports industry in the United States.
Brooks returned $200 to the Federal Emergency Management Agency in 2005 when it was found out that one of the refugees from Hurricane Katrina spent $200 on a bottle of expensive champagne at the restaurant, earning praise from government officials for his actions.
Brooks died in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina on July 15, 2006 of a heart attack. Younger son Coby Brooks became President and Chief Executive Officer of Hooters, Incorporated. and Naturally Fresh, Incorporated., but left Hooters after the sale of the company in 2011. Following the announcement of Brooks" death on July 17, 2006, the main page of the Hooters website changed their sign to "Farewell World Wide Wing Commander" that ran from July 17, 2006 to September 10, 2006.
A tribute was also done in the July 31, 2006 comic strip Prickly City.
The 2007 Hooters swimsuit calendar was also dedicated in his memory.