Brodie returned to practice in Newark, but in 1929 he was invited by Dean Frederick Bogue Noyes came to the University of Illinois College of Dentistry to organize its Department of Orthodontics—one of the first graduate orthodontics departments established in the United States. The Journal of the Charles H. Tweed International Foundation called Noyes' hiring of Brodie the beginning of "the golden age of orthodontics," and considered the department under Brodie "the West Point of orthodontics." The Journal also noted that the establishment of the Department of Orthodontics at the University of Illinois College of Dentistry "marked the fulfillment of Dr. Edward Angle lifelong ambition—to provide a broader and more scientific foundation for the practitioners of his specialty." Brodie ran the department until 1966, and was Dean of the College from 1944 to 1956, while also maintaining a private practice.