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Robert Elton Brooker

American business executive

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 15, 2026
Entity authorityQ38803200 ↗
Source-derived summary

Robert Elton Brooker (July 18, 1905 – May 17, 2001) was an American business executive at Sears, Roebuck & Co., Whirlpool Corporation, and Montgomery Ward, and recipient of the 1972 Henry Laurence Gantt Medal.

Brooker was born in Cleveland to Robert E Brooker and Isadora Brooker. He obtained his university degree at the University of Southern California. He started his career in industry at Southern California Edison Co. from 1928 to 1934, and from 1934 to 1944 he worked at the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company. In 1944 he started at Sears, Roebuck & Co., where he became vice-president.

From 1958 to 1961 he was president of the Whirlpool Corporation. In 1961 he joined Montgomery Ward as president until 1966. He served another four years as chair, and from 1970 to at least 1974 he was chair of the executive committee. In 1972 he received the Henry Laurence Gantt Medal.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Robert Elton Brooker” as american business executive. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Robert, Elton and Brooker.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1905, 2001, 1972, 1928—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1905-07-18. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Robert, Elton and Brooker providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Robert Elton Brooker”, the useful work is to connect “american business executive” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q38803200. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1905, 2001, 1972 and 1928.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Robert Elton Brooker” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.