He graduated from the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University in 1908.

During the First World War, Brooks served in the Quartermaster Division in Washington, D.C., purchasing steel products for the Army.

After the war he returned to Sewickley, and continued in the steel industry.

He later established his own business as a distributor of railway supplies and steel products.

Brooks was elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-third and Seventy-fourth Congresses.