Obituary of Peter Brooke

– Peter Reed Brooke, 87, of Seabrook Island, husband of Patricia A. Brooke for 42 years, passed away peacefully at home on December 25, 2018, surrounded by his loving family.

He was born on May 18, 1931 in Hastings, England to the late Harold Brooke and Annie Gorham Brooke.

As a youth growing up in Hastings, he attended St. Albans boys school, and was active in many sports, gaining notoriety as a goalie for the Hastings United Soccer Club.  While attending college in London he trained with Arsenal’s under 21 team and also played for their mid-week league.  He later joined the British army and became an artillery instructor during the Korean War era.

After the army, he married Neeta “Nicky” Horsler in 1952 and went to work for Lever Brothers in London, where he developed an HQ payroll system on IBM accounting machines.  He immigrated to Montreal, Canada in 1956, where he worked for Bell of Canada mechanizing payroll and accounting systems.  His two sons were born there in this period.  He was transferred to AT&T HQ in NY city in 1964 as a district manager technical advisor, then was promoted to division manager to develop systems for all Bell companies.  He later became director of systems development.

He married Patricia Zepfler in 1977, where they spent many years on Chadwick Beach Island, New Jersey.   They retired in 1987 to Seabrook Island, SC, where he was active in tennis, golf, and many committees, especially the buyout of the club for its members, and served on the ARB for many years.

He was pre-deceased by his first wife and his brother Colin.  He is survived by two loving sons Jody Reed Brooke (Suzanne), and Richard Alex Brooke (Mary-Frances); his grandson Alex, his step children Peter Zepfler (Elcira), Scott Zepfler (Dee), Nancy Zepfler, his step-granddaughter Lynsey, sisters-in-law Pam and Peta, nieces Maud, Anne, Beccy, Sarah, Louise and Jessica, nephew Mark, his forever friends Bob and Marcia Hider, and Mrs. Nancy Klock.

A special thanks to Dr. Christopher McLain and Dr. Troy Bunting, the caring cardiac staff at Roper Hospital, the Johns Island Fire Dept and EMS team, and the Roper Hospice staff.