[069]Whitwell’s Hooper Receives Distinguished Alumni Award

Release date: Aug. 29, 2008


News & Public Affairs contact: Randy Weiler, 615-898-2919
MTSU Alumni Relations contact: Michelle Stepp, 615-898-2922

MTSU ALUMNA OF DISTINCTION
Whitwell’s Hooper Receives Distinguished Alumni Award

(MURFREESBORO) — Linda M. Hooper of Whitwell has been selected as a 2008-09 Middle Tennessee State University Distinguished Alumni Award recipient, the MTSU Alumni Association announced recently.
Hooper is being recognized in the Professional Achievement category.
“My service has been in encouraging students to attend MTSU and making contributions to scholarships for students to attend,” Hooper wrote of her service to the university in her submission form to be considered for the honor.
Hooper (B.S. ’63), principal at Whitwell Middle School Marion County in southeast Tennessee, has been a public school educator for more than 30 years.
“It is my belief that educating our children is the most important task we have,” she said. “To me, educating children is giving them the tools to make responsible, informed, compassionate decisions. This is what my family and teachers did for me. It is what I did for my own children and it is what we are trying to do with the students at Whitwell Middle School.”
Hooper designed a Holocaust study project for students, and the Children’s Holocaust Memorial and Paper Clip project earned her and the students international acclaim. Part of the project included the children collecting six million paper clips from people around the world to represent the number of Jewish people killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust.
The documentary film, “Paper Clips,” and children’s book, “Six Million Paper Clips: The Making of a Children’s Holocaust Memorial,” spread the word of their project around the world, said Dr. Carol A. Baily, director of MTSU Off Campus Student Services.
“Her project and the film made about it have brought international recognition to Tennessee,” said Dr. Nancy E. Rupprecht, an MTSU history professor.
“My students at MTSU want to emulate her and, as a scholar who works on the Holocaust, I am proud to say that Dr. Hooper is a graduate of MTSU,” said Dr. Sonya M. Hedgepeth, professor in the MTSU foreign languages and literatures department.
The late Dr. Lon Nuell, who was an MTSU art department professor before passing away earlier this year, wrote in his nomination form for Hooper, “She has affected the lives of not only students, but virtually the entire Whitwell community through The Paper Clip Project.”
“The Paper Clip project has been an affirmation of my beliefs: that education is absolutely essential to change; that evil must be constantly battled by education; that everyone must study the past so that we do not forget nor repeat our mistakes; and that there is a higher power guiding our destiny,” Hooper said.
Hooper has a lengthy list of service to the community, MTSU and other special honors and recognition. Her personal accomplishments include securing $500,000 in endowed scholarships, also known as Hooper Scholars, to attend college. She has earned numerous awards, grants and fellowships and is a member of various organizations.
She has been married 44 years to Edward Hooper, a retired pharmacist. They have two sons and five grandchildren. She said her hobbies are reading, traveling, furniture refinishing, painting and hiking.
Hooper is joined in the Distinguished Alumni group along with Timothy E. “Tim” Pettus (’73) of Lawrenceburg, Tenn., who is being honored in the Service to Community category; and Kenneth Wayne “Coon” Victory (’67) of Smyrna, Tenn., who is being saluted in the Service to the University category. Micheal J. Burt (’98, ’02) of Murfreesboro is the Young Alumni Achievement honoree.
The MTSU Alumni Association annually seeks and accepts nominations for the Distinguished Alumni and Young Alumni Achievement Awards. The selection is made from candidates who have distinguished themselves by obtaining a high level of service to their profession, their community and/or MTSU.
For MTSU news and information, go to mtsunews.com.

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