506 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



WILLIAM LESLIE HOOPER (1855-1918) 



Fellow in Class I, Section 2, 1884 



The bare facts of Prof. Hooper's life can be easily abstracted from 

 Who's Who 1917-1918:— "William Leslie Hooper, Prof. Electrical 

 Engineering Tufts College 1890-1918; Born Halifax, N. S., Aug. 2, 

 1855, son Rev. William and Anne Jane (Whytal) Hooper; grad. 

 Tufts College, Phi Beta Kappa, 1877 (A. M. 1878; Ph.D. 1898; Hon. 

 LL. D. 1915). Married July 9, 1879 Mary E. Heard. Instr. math, 

 and sciences 1878-80; prin. 1882, Bromfield Acad. Harvard, Mass.; 

 Asst. Prof. Physics 1883-90, Tufts College. Acting Pres. Tufts 

 College 1912-14. Died October 3, 1918. Author: Electrical Prob- 

 lems." In the Tufts College Graduate September-November 1918, 

 there is a good likeness and a series of tributes, evidently coming from 

 the heart, from men who knew Prof. Hooper much longer than the 

 writer. It remains to add certain points of personal appreciation. 



The first characteristic was his whole-hearted and unselfish devotion 

 to Tufts. W'hen he became Acting President he refused any addition 

 to his salary as Professor, and the expense of his first campaign for 

 funds to meet the deficit he bore himself. This was not because he 

 was a man of large means, for although he stood high among electrical 

 engineers, his devotion to the College and to his work was too great 

 to permit him to heap up wealth from his commercial connections. 

 Yet as Consulting Engineer and Director of the Somerville Electrical 

 Company, Consulting Engineer for the West End Street Railway 

 Compam', and for Pearson in his Mexican development he had an 

 enviable reputation. 



Some of us have had interests divided between different colleges, 

 but this was not so with him. All his degrees, up to the LL. D. which 

 was the just and unsought reward at the end of his successful adminis- 

 tration as Acting President during a critical time, were from Tufts. 



Another thing that was characteristic of him was his willingness to 

 work. In committee work or otherwise, he never gave any one else 

 the heavier end of the log. And whether it was funds for the College 

 or funds to send an ambulance unit across, he was a man who stood 

 ready to take up any necessary work. 



