diff --git a/icu4c/source/common/rbbinode.cpp b/icu4c/source/common/rbbinode.cpp
index 7aa75d5ffb75..a1f8b78e6296 100644
--- a/icu4c/source/common/rbbinode.cpp
+++ b/icu4c/source/common/rbbinode.cpp
@@ -123,19 +123,64 @@ RBBINode::~RBBINode() {
         break;
 
     default:
-        delete        fLeftChild;
+        // Avoid using a recursive implementation because of stack overflow problems.
+        // See bug ICU-22584.
+        // delete        fLeftChild;
+        NRDeleteNode(fLeftChild);
         fLeftChild =   nullptr;
-        delete        fRightChild;
+        // delete        fRightChild;
+        NRDeleteNode(fRightChild);
         fRightChild = nullptr;
     }
 
-
     delete fFirstPosSet;
     delete fLastPosSet;
     delete fFollowPos;
-
 }
 
+/**
+ * Non-recursive delete of a node + its children. Used from the node destructor
+ * instead of the more obvious recursive implementation to avoid problems with
+ * stack overflow with some perverse test rule data (from fuzzing).
+ */
+void RBBINode::NRDeleteNode(RBBINode *node) {
+    if (node == nullptr) {
+        return;
+    }
+
+    RBBINode *stopNode = node->fParent;
+    RBBINode *nextNode = node;
+    while (nextNode != stopNode) {
+        RBBINode *currentNode = nextNode;
+
+        if ((currentNode->fLeftChild == nullptr && currentNode->fRightChild == nullptr) ||
+                currentNode->fType == varRef ||      // varRef and setRef nodes do not
+                currentNode->fType == setRef) {      // own their children nodes.
+            // CurrentNode is effectively a leaf node; it's safe to go ahead and delete it.
+            nextNode = currentNode->fParent;
+            if (nextNode->fLeftChild == currentNode) {
+                nextNode->fLeftChild = nullptr;
+            } else if (nextNode->fRightChild == currentNode) {
+                nextNode->fRightChild = nullptr;
+            }
+            delete currentNode;
+        } else if (currentNode->fLeftChild) {
+            nextNode = currentNode->fLeftChild;
+            if (nextNode->fParent == nullptr) {
+                nextNode->fParent = currentNode;
+                // fParent isn't always set; do it now if not.
+            }
+            U_ASSERT(nextNode->fParent == currentNode);
+        } else if (currentNode->fRightChild) {
+            nextNode = currentNode->fRightChild;
+            if (nextNode->fParent == nullptr) {
+                nextNode->fParent = currentNode;
+                // fParent isn't always set; do it now if not.
+            }
+            U_ASSERT(nextNode->fParent == currentNode);
+        }
+    }
+}
 
 //-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 //
diff --git a/icu4c/source/common/rbbinode.h b/icu4c/source/common/rbbinode.h
index 4ed84d4e073f..300ad8f0cfd1 100644
--- a/icu4c/source/common/rbbinode.h
+++ b/icu4c/source/common/rbbinode.h
@@ -94,6 +94,7 @@ class RBBINode : public UMemory {
         RBBINode(NodeType t);
         RBBINode(const RBBINode &other);
         ~RBBINode();
+        static void  NRDeleteNode(RBBINode *node);
         
         RBBINode    *cloneTree();
         RBBINode    *flattenVariables();
diff --git a/icu4c/source/test/intltest/rbbitst.cpp b/icu4c/source/test/intltest/rbbitst.cpp
index e95419afc470..dcfff8a54a90 100644
--- a/icu4c/source/test/intltest/rbbitst.cpp
+++ b/icu4c/source/test/intltest/rbbitst.cpp
@@ -144,6 +144,7 @@ void RBBITest::runIndexedTest( int32_t index, UBool exec, const char* &name, cha
     TESTCASE_AUTO(TestRandomAccess);
     TESTCASE_AUTO(TestExternalBreakEngineWithFakeTaiLe);
     TESTCASE_AUTO(TestExternalBreakEngineWithFakeYue);
+    TESTCASE_AUTO(TestBug22584);
 
 #if U_ENABLE_TRACING
     TESTCASE_AUTO(TestTraceCreateCharacter);
@@ -5858,4 +5859,18 @@ void RBBITest::TestExternalBreakEngineWithFakeTaiLe() {
                expected2 == actual2);
 }
 
+void RBBITest::TestBug22584() {
+    // Creating a break iterator from a rule consisting of a very long
+    // literal input string caused a stack overflow when deleting the
+    // parse tree for the input during the rule building process.
+
+    // Failure of this test showed as a crash during the break iterator construction.
+
+    UnicodeString ruleStr(100000, (UChar32)0, 100000);
+    UParseError pe {};
+    UErrorCode ec {U_ZERO_ERROR};
+
+    RuleBasedBreakIterator bi(ruleStr, pe, ec);
+}
+
 #endif // #if !UCONFIG_NO_BREAK_ITERATION
diff --git a/icu4c/source/test/intltest/rbbitst.h b/icu4c/source/test/intltest/rbbitst.h
index 537a537863ad..9f85b273ae1b 100644
--- a/icu4c/source/test/intltest/rbbitst.h
+++ b/icu4c/source/test/intltest/rbbitst.h
@@ -98,6 +98,7 @@ class RBBITest: public IntlTest {
     void TestRandomAccess();
     void TestExternalBreakEngineWithFakeTaiLe();
     void TestExternalBreakEngineWithFakeYue();
+    void TestBug22584();
 
 #if U_ENABLE_TRACING
     void TestTraceCreateCharacter();