Brock is a native Californian who grew up sailing on San Francisco Bay. After graduating from UC Berkeley in 1971, he joined a marine pollution research group at the Bodega Marine Laboratory studying persistent organic pollutants in the marine environment. During that time he captained a specially equipped Fisher 37 motorsailer for water pollution studies in SF Bay, Coastal California and the Spanish Mediterranean. In 1986 he helped found a new trace organic research facility at the Long Marine Laboratory of UC Santa Cruz.

In 1989 he joined a biotech company, Glycomed, in Alameda, California and was successively responsible for senior IT management for several biotech companies including Onyx Pharmaceuticals, gene/Networks, Parke-Davis and Celera Diagnostics until 2009.

Through a lifelong sailing connection with the SF Bay Folkboat fleet, he was recruited by the Svendsen family to serve as the harbor master of the Alameda Marina from 2011-2016. He then became the harbor master for the Oakland Marinas from 2017-2022. After retirement he has been engaged in part-time marine consulting, and remains a strong advocate for the protection of the Oakland/Alameda Estuary.