Born on July 2, 1834 in Poultney, Vermont to the agrarian Thomas and Betsey Hooker, Edward Payson Hooker descended from such notable individuals as the congregational minister Thomas Hooker and his patriotic grandfather and uncle, both of whom had served in the Revolutionary War.  In 1835 Thomas Hooker moved his family (his wife, Edward, and five older siblings) to neighboring Castleton, owing to the town’s advanced educational opportunities.  Edward Hooker graduated from school at the Castleton Seminary in 1851, having taken courses in Latin, Greek, and mathematics.  The same year, Hooker entered Middlebury College with his brother, David, and graduated five years later with an Artium Baccalaureatus degree.  Upon completion of his A.B., the college awarded Hooker a one-year fellowship in mathematics, which allowed him time to pursue graduate studies as he taught.  Hooker’s life-long interests in classical education and religion reflected these early experiences.

Hooker married his first wife, Annah Baxter, on November 9, 1857.  The marriage lasted eight years until Annah Hooker died from illness in Castleton in November 1869.  In 1858, Hooker received his Master of Arts degree from Middlebury, became a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Chi Psi, and entered the Andover Theological Seminary, from which he received a bachelor’s degree in 1861.  That year, Hooker became an ordained pastor of the Mystic Congregational Church in Medford, Massachusetts.  Hooker then assumed the position of pastor for the Middlebury Congregational Church on September 14, 1870.  One year later, on September 2, Hooker married Elizabeth Mary Muzzy with whom he had six children: Elizabeth Robbins, Stuart Van Renselaer, Emily Griswold, Edward Clarendon, Mary Stuart, and David Ashley.  All of Hooker’s children would later attend Rollins College.  Hooker served as a trustee of Middlebury College in 1876 (until his resignation ten years later) and earned his Doctoral degree from the institution in 1881.  Hooker dutifully carried out his pastoral responsibilities, taught, and held positions on trustee boards throughout his life, demonstrating a commitment to faith, education, and community.

The first development regarding a movement to establish a college in Florida began in 1883 with Hooker’s move to Winter Park.  Hooker arrived in Florida with the intention of improving his poor health in the warm climate.  Hooker seconded Frederick Wolcott Lyman’s proposal to found the school on January 15, 1884, when he discussed the project in a sermon to his congregation.  In February, Hooker helped organize the Winter Park Congregational Church, which met the next month and requested that Hooker prepare a paper on the condition of the public school and higher educational systems in Florida (which he presented on January 28, 1884).  The congregation decided upon Winter Park as the location for the school in 1885 and selected Holt as the president of the faculty.  The president secured funding (with himself receiving a salary of one thousand dollars for the first year), and taught courses in logic, ethics, philosophy, and the Bible.  The college opened on schedule on November 4, 1885, with fifty-three students and twenty-five visitors.  As a result of the lack of adequate primary school facilities in the area, the school initially provided preparatory education.  Hooker also emphasized the importance of physical education.  Thus, the courses offered in the gymnasium became an important part of the campus experience.  Owing to his great respect for the northern curriculum, Hooker designed Rollins around classical education, encouraged a standard of grading based upon daily participation in class (rather than exams), and adopted the entrance requirements promoted by the President of Harvard.

Hooker served as a charter trustee, college pastor, and president of Rollins until his resignation in 1892. During that time, Hooker managed the various challenges of a new school, such as financial difficulties and the relative obscurity of the institution to New Englanders. He even went as far as personally housing a struggling student threatened with expulsion. Hooker also expressed interest in the community outside of Rollins, endeavoring for the improvement in the educational conditions of the Seminole. He described the subsequent changes in Winter Park, the “wonderful transformation of this hill from an unbroken waste, and the crowning of these slopes with these comely buildings, as in a night,” as a “grand enterprise.”[1]

After his retirement, Hooker continued to demonstrate his strength of character.  In 1893 a series of storms sank the ship City of Savannah, aboard which Hooker and two of his children traveled, off the Florida Pan Shoals.  During the crisis Hooker led prayer services and insisted on disembarking from the wreckage last, after several days of hardship.  Hooker suffered severe injuries as a result of the accident and never fully recovered his health.  In 1898 he resigned as pastor of the Congregational Church and retired to Marshfield, Massachusetts.  Hooker died of nephritis on November 29, 1904.  At Hooker’s memorial service, Loring Augustus Chase described him as a “man of commanding presence with a large body, a noble head, a handsome face illumined by a kindly smile, reflecting his sunny disposition.”[2]  Hooker was a Republican,[3] had great skill as an orator, “intellectual vigor,”[4] and strong piety.  Additionally, he authored Memorial of the Life, Character and Word of the Rev. Joseph Steele, published in Middlebury, 1874.  The dedication of Hooker Hall in 1937, as well as the Hooker Educational Building (which replaced the original church and Hooker Memorial in 1940), serves to commemorate his contribution to Winter Park and Rollins College.

- Angelica Garcia