526 ROBERT WILLIAM HOOPER. 



Our associate's excessive modesty and shrinking from publicity led 

 to a retired life, and comparatively few enjoyed the profit and charm 

 of his familiar acquaintance. These, howevei", could testify to the 

 breadth and catholicity of his tastes and sympathies, which were not 

 less marked than his ardor and capability in his own special labors. 

 If natural science was his vocation, ancient and modern literature and 

 antiquarian research were his avocations ; nor with all the simplicity 

 of his life was he a stranger to the luxury of charity. In short, it 

 was the happy instinct of this amiable and modest man to conform his 

 life to Wordsworth's ideal for the student of science, — that he should 

 also be enriched and gladdened by converse with poets, sages, and 

 men of letters. He was a consisent and devout Christian, greatly 

 beloved and respected in the Baptist Church, to which he was devot- 

 edly attached. 



EGBERT WILLIAM HOOPER. 



Robert William Hooper, son of John and Eunice (Hooper) 

 Hoopei-, was born in Marblehead, Mass., October 25, 1810. He was 

 graduated at Harvard College in the year 1830, and in 1833 went to 

 Europe, where he studied medicine. After pursuing his studies in 

 Paris and elsewhere, and after travelling over a large part of Europe, 

 he returned to America in 1835, took his degree of M. D. from Har- 

 vard College in 1836, and began the practice of his profession in Bos- 

 ton. He married, September 25, 1837, Ellen, eldest daughter of 

 William Sturgis, merchant of Boston, and Elizabeth Marston (Watson) 

 Davis, his wife. Three children, all of whom survived their parents, 

 were born of this marriage. Mrs. Hooper died on November 3, 

 1848. 



For nearly fifty years after beginning the practice of his jirofession. 

 Dr. Hooper lived in Boston, devoting himself to his family and friends 

 and to the public institutions with which he was connected. His pri- 

 vate practice was never large, but his sjjhere of usefulness was not 

 confined to his profession. He was one of the surgeons of the Massa- 

 chusetts Charitable Eye and Ear Infirmary, and its records show that 

 he had " for more than a generation been connected with its develop- 

 ment and watched over its interests." For thirty years he was one 

 of the trustees of the Boston Athenseum, and his associates have said 

 that " he has worked himself, he has interested others and made them 

 work, and he has done more than any one else to build up the library, 

 increase its value, and extend its usefulness.'' For twenty-seven years 



