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If Bob Brooks were to launch a TV show, it might aptly be named, "Who wants to create a millionaire?"
Brooks, a telecommunications legend who spawned dozens of companies, also has helped create more than 60 millionaires at Brooks Fiber Properties alone.
At a "retirement" party nearly four years ago, 23 millionaires from Brooks Fiber attended, according to the September issue of Red Herring, a magazine that focuses on technology.
Former executives from the company placed the total number of millionaires from that business at roughly 60, of which more than
40 are in St. Louis.
Brooks said he's been told of the tally. He does not personally keep count. But he's aware of the impact locally and the opportunity it has
created.
"They no longer have to move to get a job," he dead panned.
His business partners here have included the founders of Cencom Cable - Howard Wood, Barry Babcock and Jerry Kent, who later launched Charter Communications. He also backed GLA International, a telecommunications consulting firm led by Jim Moffit. John Shapleigh, a former Brooks Fiber executive, is now chairman of Partner Communications and operates his own consulting firm.
But retirement did not agree with Bob Brooks.
So at 67, Brooks, perhaps the region's best recognized entrepreneur, quit taking calls at his home office. Instead, he set up shop in the Chesterfield Valley and last year resumed where he left off in 1996 launching new businesses and turning his cohorts into millionaires through his Brooks Investments venture fund.
One of his first acts after ending the self-imposed retirement was to raise more than $100 million for Gabriel Communications Inc. in St. Louis County. The launch came two years after WorldCom (now MCI WorldCom) bought Brooks Fiber.
His notable start-ups read like a short list of telecommunications deals of the 1990s:
* Cencom, a cable TV business launched in 1982 and sold for $1...