Brooke Stauffer

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

by John Grau

All of us at NECA are saddened by the sudden loss of Brooke Stauffer. He presumably died in a private plane accident on August 24, although the plane’s wreckage has not yet been found.

H. Brooke Stauffer

Brooke was NECA’s Executive Director of Standards and Safety for 12 years. When his predecessor, Charlie Hart, retired after 40 years of service to NECA I thought that we would never find another person to fill his shoes. But Brooke did so, and he set a new standard of his own. NECA was privileged to have him serve our association.

Working with the National Electrical Code is an exacting job, and Brooke was a leader in shaping that Code. He was recently appointed to head the National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA) Electrical Section—both an honor and recognition that Brooke was one of the nation’s top code experts. He also created and sheparded the development of the NECA National Electrical Installation Standards (NEIS). NEIS was a brand new venture for NECA, and its success was largely due to Brooke’s efforts. He was a popular speaker at electrical inspector conferences and earned a reputation for promoting high quality, safe electrical installations.

You would expect someone like Brooke to have a strong technical background, but he was a writer first and foremost. He authored a number of books for NFPA and regularly wrote interesting and compelling articles and reports.

I am sure Brooke would claim that the greatest achievement in his life was raising three wonderful children and watching them become successful adults. He was a great father, engaged and supportive of his children’s activities and interests. His fiancée Karen Dodds was just as outgoing and engaging as Brooke. I always enjoyed sharing a table with them at various industry events.

Brooke was one of a small group within the office that I regularly grab a sandwich with at lunch. It was pretty quiet around the table today. We all have our memories of good times with Brooke, and we all miss him.

Mike Holt's Comment: Brooke was a dear personal friend of our family and he will be terribly missed by us all.