Robert William Hooper (October 24, 1810 – April 13, 1885) was a prominent Boston physician.

Hooper graduated from Harvard College in 1830 and later studied throughout Europe starting in 1833. He returned to the United States in 1835 and obtained a medical degree from Harvard College.[1]

Hooper married Ellen Sturgis on September 25, 1837.[1] Friends thought his wife was intellectually superior to him. Margaret Fuller remarked that the coupling was like "that perfume... wasted on the desert wind".[2] The couple had three children, all of whom outlived Hooper. The marriage ended on November 3, 1848, upon Ellen Hooper's death.[1]

Hooper worked as a surgeon at the Charitable Eye and Ear Infirmary and was a trustee of the Boston Athenaeum for thirty years. Hooper provided most of his services free of charge.[1]

Sources edit

  1. ^ a b c d "Robert William Hooper". American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 21: 526–527. May 1885 – May 1886. JSTOR 25129840.
  2. ^ de Rocher, Cecile Anne. "Ellen Sturgis Hooper (1812–1848)" in Writers of the American Renaissance: An A–to–Z Guide (Denise D. Knight, editor). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2003: 203. ISBN 0-313-32140-X