Benjy Frances Brooks

1985 Inductee
Health Professions
(1918-1998)

Benjy Frances Brooks, M.D., was a Houston physician who became Texas’ first pediatric surgeon in 1958. She received a bachelor’s and master’s degrees from North Texas State University and completed medical school at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. She did her pediatric surgical training at the Harvard Medical School.

After returning to Texas, she performed pediatric surgery at Texas Children’s Hospital and St. Joseph’s Hospital and volunteered as a teacher at Baylor College of Medicine. In 1973, she joined the newly formed University of Texas Medical School as a tenured full professor and established the Division of Pediatric Surgery, which she headed for the next 10 years.

During her career, Dr. Brooks completed research on congenital defects and burn treatment, and her work was recognized with such honors as the Horatio Alger Award in 1983 and Distinguished Alumni Awards from both North Texas State University and the UT Medical School at Galveston. The Benjy Brooks Foundation for Children, Inc., was established in her honor by the grateful parents of one of her patients with the mission to advance the surgical care of young children in Texas.