Tom B. Hooper

Thomas Bradlee Hooper (August 22, 1936-May 25, 2013) passed away at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was 76 years old. Tom grew up in Westborough and Needham. He attended Harvard College where he captained the varsity football team and graduated in 1958 with a BA, Magna Cum Laude in English. He later earned a MA in English from the University of Michigan. Soon after graduating from Harvard, Tom began his career as an educator teaching English at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School. He used a traditional approach to learning but quickly realized that there were many students for whom this approach was not successful. After reading the work of Howard Gardner, Harvard Professor of Cognition and Education and expert in style sensitivity, Tom found the approach he needed. Gardner believes that (we) have a basic set of intelligences and 'that the challenge (for the educator) is how to best take advantage of the uniqueness of these intelligences by including them in a learning model which would maximize the creativity and capabilities of each student. This became the model upon which Tom based his career as an educator. Tom became particularly interested in the black students bussed into LS from Dorchester and Roxbury through the METCO program (the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity) whose goal is to increase diversity and decrease racial isolation. Tom wanted to support the METCO students and using Gardner's model he found he could support them through classes in literature and writing. He created a course that he called "The Making and Remaking of Race" which he used to deal with issues of prejudice. Tom's class had an equal number of black and white students since he knew that to have a successful course on race it must include students who are living racial prejudice. Spirited discussions allowed the students to "walk in each others shoes" and promoted a mutual understanding of who the students were as human beings regardless of their skin color. He and other colleagues also developed a special program, using a more flexible teaching model for non-traditional learners. This program gave these students the opportunity to make academic progress in a new and different way by encouraging them to discuss, debate and process the literature relating the material to their own lives and writing about what touched and stirred them. Tom retired from Lincoln Sudbury in 2000 and began a new phase of his experience as an educator, teaching at 2 community colleges, Quinsigamond and Bunker Hill. Teaching students from all walks of life, of all ages and from many different countries he was struck by how deeply they wanted to learn, often while juggling jobs, and family obligations and attending classes some beginning as early as 7:00 am and others as late as midnight. He knew that these students needed support and encouragement. He accomplished this by asking the students write about their backgrounds and experiences. Through sharing their writing with other class members, they created a true community of learning, education and respect. One of his most powerful and treasured experiences was working with a Kurdish student who asked that he help her translate her poetry from Farsi to English. Her book was subsequently published both here in English and in Iran. Tom was a member of HILR, The Harvard Institute for Learning in Retirement where he broadened his own learning by taking courses in opera, art and religion. He also taught many courses in poetry including Frost, Dickenson and Whitman as well as William Faulkner's complete works and novels by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Tom was a prolific poet and recently began to study drawing. At his Harvard 55th Reunion in May, Tom was to have been one of 6 classmates asked to speak about their lives since graduation from Harvard. Just prior to his death Tom prepared his remarks which his children presented for him on May 28 at the Reunion event. While education and his students have been the center of Tom's life, fishing was his lifelong love. Salmon fishing the Gray River in Newfoundland these past 14 years was a special joy for Tom. Always an "outdoor guy", he has biked countless miles on the back roads of Massachusetts, cross country skied, and skated. Tom and his wife of 40 years, Mimi (Antonelli) lived for 32 years in Harvard, Ma. Upon retirement they moved into Cambridge. He is survived by his wife, his son, Thomas Joseph Hooper of Washington, DC, his stepdaughter Alexandra Athos Evans, of Harvard and 3 grandchildren, Nicholas Alexander Evans, Gwyneth Elyse Evans and Thomas Day Hooper. Tom is also survived by his brother, Harry P Hooper of Needham. A memorial service followed by a reception will be held at the Harvard Faculty Club, 20 Quincy Street, Cambridge on Sunday, June 9 at 4:00. His former students, friends, colleagues and family members are cordially invited to attend. In lieu of lowers tax deductible donations noting" In memory of Tom Hooper" may be made by check to The Bunker Hill Community College Foundation: attention Kristen Brouker and mailed to Bunker Hill Community College, C202, 250 New Rutherford Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02129.