Kenneth W. Hooker Jr.

1942 - 2022

Wales, MA-Kenneth W. Hooker Jr., age 79, of Wales, MA, died peacefully and comfortably in his home on June 20, 2022. Born in Rochester, NY on November 10, 1942, to the late Kenneth Ward Hooker and Mary (Mitchell) Hooker, he was the middle child and only son of five children. Mr. Hooker was raised in Lewisburg, PA, and summered in a treasured family home in Canandaigua, NY, throughout his life. A graduate of Bucknell University, he also attended the Brookings Institution. Professionally, Mr. Hooker is well remembered as a reporter and editor at the Hartford Courant, longtime editor of New England Business Magazine, and a syndicated columnist for the Boston Globe (Financial Q&A with Kenneth Hooker). An insatiable reader his entire life, Mr. Hooker amassed a collection of the American humorists, and in his retirement became an antiquarian book dealer. He founded and ran The Wayward Bookman, named for A. J. Liebling's "The Wayward Pressman", in a former gas station building in Wales, MA. Mr. Hooker was an adventurous man with many hobbies and abilities. He raised pigs and chickens at home at one point, taught English at his children's elementary school, participated in community theater, built houses on the family property in Canandaigua, and libraries in his children's homes. He enjoyed country music, art, and collecting knives, as well as driving a tractor, even in his old age. Mr. Hooker will be remembered for his intelligence, dry wit, irreverent sense of humor, loyalty, and family devotion. He was a mentor to his employees and admired by all who knew him. He will never be forgotten. A beloved husband, father, grandfather and brother, he is survived by his loving wife of 32 years Stephanie Della Cagna-Hooker. Mr. Hooker is also survived by his 6 children from previous marriages: Lucia Huntington of Cambridge and Britt Gappelberg of Lexington, MA (children from marriage to Jacqueline Broekhuysen), Miranda Hooker of Arlington, MA, Emily Hooker, Noah Hooker, and adopted daughter Analisa Madrone, all of Berkeley, CA (children from marriage to Elaine Jackson). Mr. Hooker was the brother of Pamela Hart of Cambridge, MA, Alice Hooker and Saralinda Hooker, of Canandaigua, NY, and Marianne Hooker of New Castle, PA. Mr. Hooker was the cherished grandfather of Sophia, Jacob, and Eric Medoff (deceased) of Cambridge, MA, and Stella and Alexei Mayer, of Berkeley, CA. A part of a large family, Mr. Hooker had seven nieces and nephews, many cousins, including Samuel B. Payne Jr. of Canandaigua NY, and a large extended family. He was a direct descendent of Rev. Thomas Hooker, an early settler of our country, who founded Connecticut. Lombard Funeral Home of Monson has been entrusted with the arrangements. Private memorial services will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Mark Twain Foundation. For online condolences please visit www.lombardfuneralhome.com.