Irving Brokaw

Isaac Irving Brokaw (March 29, 1871 – March 18, 1939) was an American figure skater, artist, lawyer, and financier. He represented the United States at the 1908 Summer Olympics in the figure skating competition, becoming the first American to compete in a sport included in the Winter Olympic program. After he won an international prize in Switzerland, he brought the International Style of skating back to the United States. His book, "Art of Skating" was known as the figure skater's bible. Personal life and family He was born in New York City on March 29, 1871, as Isaac Irving Brokaw to Isaac Vail Brokaw and Elvira Tuttle Gould. He was a member of a wealthy New York City family, his father having founded the Brokaw Brothers men's clothing stores. His brothers were lawyer and sportsman George Tuttle Brokaw (whose first wife was Clare Boothe (later Clare Boothe Luce), Howard Crosby Brokaw, and Frederick Brokaw, who drowned at Elberon, New Jersey, while a student at Princeton. Noted cousins included sportsmen William Gould Brokaw and Clifford Vail Brokaw, their sisters Florence Brokaw, of Martin Hall, (Mrs. James E. Martin, later Mrs. Preston Pope Satterwhite) and Lilla Brokaw (Mrs. H. Bramhall Gilbert, later Mrs. Cyril Patrick William Francis Radclyffe Dugmore). On February 4, 1903, Brokaw married Lucile Nave in St. Joseph. Her family co-owned the Nave & McCord Mercantile Company, a chain of wholesale stores in the Midwest. They had three daughters: Barbara Lucile, who married Leonard Jarvis Cushing. Louise Elvira, aka Mimi, who married Richard Derby Tucker. Lucile, who married, first, James Duane Pell Bishop; second, Rombout van Riemsdyk; and third, Roelof Carel DeBoer. She became an artist. Irving Brokaw died March 19, 1939, in West Palm Beach, Florida. He's buried at Locust Valley Cemetery in Locust Valley, N.Y.