Maurice Brooks was born in Edgewood, Nevada in 1908.  He sculpted in a traditional realist style.  He died in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1970. 

Brooks began art lessons at the University of Utah with J. T. Harwood and A. B. Wright. He also studied with sculptors Torleif Knaphus and Gilbert Griswold and assisted on Griswold’s Mormon Battalion Monument.  In 1925, Brooks began an eight-year apprenticeship with Millard Malin whom he credited as his greatest artistic influence.  Brooks assisted him on his Sugarhouse Pioneer Monument during his apprenticeship.  Brooks also collaborated with Malin during the construction of temples for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Bern, London, and New Zealand by the creation of sculptured baptismal fonts. 

Brooks taught at Salt Lake City’s Art Barn as part of the Works Projects Administration Federal Arts Project.
Brooks’s work can be seen the Cathedral of Madeleine, the museum for the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, and the LDS Relief Society Building.  He is best known for the Gilgal Sculpture Garden in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Biographical information on this page was adapted from Artists of Utah.