Hi Russ,
I concur with the assessment that for this number of files it's just as efficient to use drag and drop then save manually as it would be to go through the learnig curve, development and debugging of a Quickkeys macro.
One further consideration, though:
Numbers '09 can open AppleWorks files only if the files are AW6 files. AppleWorks 5 files, and files created with any version of ClarisWorks can't be opend with Numbers.
If some of your brother's files were created with AppleWorks 5, you will need a two-step process: Open the file in AW6 (which will tel you the file was created with an earlier versionof AppleWorks and add a "v6" to the filename), then Save the file (as an AW6 file). Step 2 is to open the new file with Numbers, and again Save.
ClarisWorks 5 files are in the same format as AW5. Files created with earlier versions of ClarisWorks will likely be inaccessible without going to an OS prior to OS X.
Happy Christmas and a Merry New Year's!
Regards,
Barry