Bicyclist carries out son’s
dream for ‘healthy living’
By MITRA MALEK
Correspondent

FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP — Ray Brook is a man with a mission.

"Think of the things you want to do," he said, "and don’t let anybody hold you back."

He calls it "role-modeling," saying it applies to adults and youths alike.

"I want to model self-reliance, which is the first step in self-leadership," he said.

Brook, 60, of Mercer Island, Wash., set his example by carrying out a cycling journey that visited all 50 states and 10 Canadian provinces. Along the way, he spoke to numerous Rotary clubs, urging members to question whether they were living life to its fullest.

"You have the power to do it," said Brook, who spoke locally to a club in Freehold Township, where he also stayed overnight at a friend’s house as he wound up his eight-month trip pedaling along the East Coast earlier this month.

Brook’s quest fulfills a legacy. His son and only child, Ron, died of cystic fibrosis in 1989. Four months after his birth, Ron was diagnosed with the disease. Doctors said he would probably not live beyond his fifth birthday. He lived to be 26, having enjoyed a mostly normal life the first 23 years.

To Ron, his father embodied healthy living.

"Whoever invented the saying ‘picture of health’ must have been looking at my dad at the time," Ron once wrote in a journal entry.

"When I read that after he passed away, it clinched it," Brook recalled. "I said, ‘Pal, you haven’t seen anything yet.’"

Since one of Ron’s dreams was to ride his motorcycle across the country, Brook committed himself to fulfilling his son’s dream. But he chose to do it on a bicycle, which he believes exemplifies a healthy lifestyle.

Then he took his son’s wish further.

Brook contemplated his own purpose in life. Without children or grandchildren, he reached beyond "blood" connections and decided to "teach youth how to be all they can be," as he put it.

He created Summit Seekers, a nonprofit corporation dedicated to youth leadership education, set up a Web site at www.summitseekers.org and started recruiting mentors.

"My vision is of a world where every child grows up with the opportunity to become all they can be by healthy living and healthy giving," he said.

Brook waited until retiring from his 35-year career with Proctor and Gamble to begin his bicycle trip. He covered 17,171 miles since January, typically biking 150 miles per day for 12 to 14 hours on a zig-zag journey that set him through blizzards, hail, rain and stiff winds. He returned home six times during the trip, each time logging updates on his Web site.

He burned about 10,000 calories each day, sustaining his energy with eggs, pancakes, chicken sandwiches, pasta and stir fry. Daily he would down a gallon of milk, a gallon of water and a half-gallon of orange juice.

Brook toted only the essentials: a cell phone, spare tires, maps, bike shorts, jerseys, socks, running shoes, a rain suit, a tool kit, an overnight kit, a first-aid kit and a few other items.

He closed his journey having dealt with 34 flat tires — 32 during the first half of the trip, and only two in the second half after he switched to a specialized tire.

A 20-minute conversation he held with two random cyclists while pedaling across Montana’s vast landscape has turned into "a friendship that will last a lifetime," he said. Brook was headed west, and the two men were headed east to West Virginia. A few minutes of talking turned into an invitation. The men offered Brook a bed during the tail end of his trip, when he’d be in the area of Philadelphia. Then they rode with him to the finale in Washington, D.C.

"It was the perfect finish," he said. "That’s the kind of thing this trip was about: love and caring."