CENSUS

Jet, Oct 4, 1999

Frank B. Brooks, 61, Mourned In Chicago; Founder Of Brooks Sausage Company

Funeral services for Frank B. Brooks, who founded Brooks Sausage Company, recently were held in Chicago. Brooks, 61, died of colon cancer at Mercy Hospital in Chicago.

Brooks started Brooks Sausage Company in late 1985. Under his leadership, the company became one of the largest minority vendors to McDonald's restaurants. Brooks' company supplied sausage for several thousand McDonald's restaurants located in the United States and in Asia.

At the time of his death, he was chairman of Brooks Food Group, Inc., a company he founded in 1995 with the acquisition of Golden West Foods.

In 1998 Brooks formed Gold Signature Foods as a vehicle to expand the product lines and capacity of Golden West Foods. Gold Signature Foods, in March of this year, completed its acquisition of a USDA manufacturing plant in Monroe, NC.

Gold Signature Foods commenced operations in its newly renovated facility the following month.

Both Golden West Foods and Gold Signature Foods currently manufacture and market frozen food products that are sold to national restaurant chains and to school lunch programs.

Brooks is survived by his wife, Robin, two children, his mother, two grandchildren and a step-daughter.

Ex. Medical Director Of N.Y. State Athletic Commission, Edwin A. Campbell, Dies

Dr. Edwin A. Campbell, retired medical director of the New York State Athletic Commission, recently died in Greentown, PA. He was 81.

An accomplished physician and surgeon, Dr. Campbell joined the New York State Athletic Commission in 1959. In his 28 years of service there, he earned a reputation as one of the nation's top sports doctors.

Dr. Campbell, an ardent fan of boxing, specialized in the training and conditioning of boxers and became internationally recognized as an expert in hand surgery.

During the heyday of boxing in the '60s and '70s, he served as ringside physician at all the major fights at New York's famed Madison Square Garden.

Dr. Campbell is survived by his wife, Rosemary, two sisters, Odessa C. Wilson and Velvin C. Nipson, a brother, James R. Campbell, and a brother-in-law, Herbert Nipson, retired executive editor of EBONY Magazine.

Lester J. Dugas Jr., 74, Chicago Businessman And Civic leader, Succumbs

Lester J. Dugas Jr., retired businessman and civic leader, recently died at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago. He was 74.

He was the first Black senior manager for Commonwealth Edison in Chicago, where he worked for 35 years. When he retired from the utility company in the late '80s, he was the division vice president for Chicago South.

Born in Milwaukee, he attended public schools there. He entered the Army during World War II. While in the Army he received advanced training in electrical engineering at Howard University. After he served in the Army, he earned a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

He served as chairman of the Art Institute of Chicago's Leadership Advisory Committee and was a board member at Children's Memorial Hospital for 30 years. He also was a former president of the board at Chicago's Provident Hospital and was instrumental in the development and construction of the hospital's new facility.

Dugas was a board member of the Kenwood Group Inc., and chairman of the executive committee of the Hyde Park Bank.

Dugas attended The Church of St. Paul and the Redeemer, where he served as Junior and Senior wardens.

He is survived by his wife, Lauranita Dugas, three children, Gail D. Dugas, Dr. Jeffrey A. Dugas Sr., and Lauren Dugas Glover; two sisters, Dolores Scurlock and Carolyn Viera, and five grandchildren.

Agnes Louise Washington O'Neal, Descendant of Booker T. Washington, Dies

Agnes Louise Washington O'Neal, a granddaughter of Booker T. Washington and his oldest living direct descendant, recently died in Oakland, CA. She was 80.

Born in Tuskegee, AL, she exemplified the ideals of Washington through her hard work and commitment to excellence in all that she did.

She attended elementary and high school in Tuskegee and received her bachelor of science degree in business administration from Tennessee State University.

She later worked on the staff of such notable scholars and educators as Mary McCleod Bethune, founder of the National Council of Negro Women, and Howard Thurman, dean of the Chapel of Howard University.

Mrs. O'Neal was also the first Black to work at the Federal Department of Agriculture. In 1944, she returned to Tuskegee where she worked at the Tuskegee Army Air Base.

She is survived by four children, Edith, John, James and Sarah; three sisters, Margaret, Edith and Gloria; seven grandchildren, four great grandchildren and a host of other relatives and friends.