Sometimes his kid-friendly tie was the first thing you’d see coming down the hallway. It was an outward emblem of an engaging nature and quiet humor that we’ve relied on since his arrival in Richmond in 1981. Over his 35-year tenure, Richard R. Brookman, M.D., has skillfully and compassionately influenced the care of countless children and adolescents in the community as well as the training of generations of students and residents. Despite his own busy schedule, he’s often the first to offer a helping hand to a colleague in need.

A professor of pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at Virginia Commonwealth University, Dr. Brookman served as chief of the Division of Adolescent Medicine from 1981 until 2016 and continues as a member of the division. From 1986-99, he was director of the Pediatric Residency Program and also helped start the combined Medicine/Pediatrics Residency Program.

Nationally, Dr. Brookman is a fellow and past president of the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. For 25 years, he was the senior associate editor of the Journal of Adolescent Health. A fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, he has served on the AAP Committee on Adolescence and Committee on Pediatric Education and is a member of the AAP Section on Adolescent Health. He is a longtime member of the Committee on Adolescent Health Care of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Closer to home, Dr. Brookman is medical director for the Henrico County and James River Regional Juvenile Detention Homes and was a longstanding member and former chair of the Henrico County School Health Advisory Board. Dr. Brookman’s special interests include adolescent sexuality and its consequences, adolescent preventive health care, adolescent behavior and development and medical education. Henrico County residents since 1980, Dr. Brookman and his wife have two adult daughters and two adolescent grandchildren. They also have enjoyed volunteering as cat rescuers for the past 18 years. An avid reader of history — both fact and fiction — he keeps his mind and fingers agile playing the piano and solving difficult crossword puzzles.

A graduate of Tufts University School of Medicine, Dr. Brookman completed three years of residency training in Pediatrics at Montefiore Hospital in New York, served for two years as a pediatrician in the U.S. Navy and was a fellow in Adolescent Medicine at Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati. He spent five years as assistant director of the Division of Adolescent Medicine in Cincinnati before joining the VCU faculty in 1981.

Richard Brookman Fund in Adolescent Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics

Since 1981, all graduates of the Pediatric and Medicine/Pediatrics residency programs have learned about the health care needs of adolescents and young adults from Dr. Brookman, who has provided health care for at least two generations of young people.

Now that he has stepped down as chief of the Division of Adolescent Medicine, Dr. Brookman will gradually reduce his professional time over the next few years until full retirement. To ensure that his legacy of teaching continues, the Richard Brookman Fund in Adolescent Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics has been established at the MCV Foundation. The Fund will enhance educational activities in the Adolescent Medicine Division by bringing to campus guest speakers on adolescent medicine topics and providing additional lectures to residents, students and other health professionals.

Join in honoring Dr. Brookman for his contributions to teaching and patient care with your own tax-deductible gift.

Visit support.vcu.edu/medicine and direct your gift to the Brookman Fund in Adolescent Medicine.