Conrad Hooper died Monday at the age of 92. Hooper is remembered in Wake County for his leadership in education. He was one of the school system leaders that guided the schools through merger in 1976.
Hooper was superintendent of the former Raleigh City School System from 1966 to 1976. Then he served as the first Deputy Superintendent of the Wake County Public School System from 1976 to 1979.
“We owe a great debt to the Wake County leaders who had the foresight to bring our community together and create a school system that powered the opportunities and growth we share today,” said Kevin L. Hill, chair of the Wake County Board of Education. “Conrad Hooper, Vernon Malone, and other courageous leaders worked long and hard through difficult times establishing the foundation of our school system. As we look at our community today, it is easy to see the benefits their vision brought us.”
Hooper was a member of the Greatest Generation serving in the US Army Air Force during WW II and participated in D-Day.
Hooper came to Raleigh in 1948 to teach at Olds Elementary, eventually becoming principal at Olds Elementary. He later served as principal at Hugh Morson High School and at Daniels Junior High. Morson High which looked similar to crosstown rival Broughton High was torn down to make way for Raleigh’s federal building. Daniels is now a middle school.
Hooper grew up in Jackson County, NC and was a graduate of Western Carolina College, now Western Carolina University.
UPDATE: I checked with Olds Elementary to see if they had memories of Mr. Hooper at the school. School staff noted that Hooper’s name is the second in the list on the schools’ plaque of principals.
And they found the following information about their school during Hooper’s leadership from 1948 to 1954.
During the years of Conrad Hooper’s principalship, there was continued growth of the physical plant of Olds and a growing concern for safety and protection of the community children who attended the school. In December, 1948, the City Council ordered restricted parking and 2 blocks of one-way streets on Kilgore and Bedford. This action came in response to parents who described traffic conditions around the school as hazardous and needing immediate control. Safety measures were again emphasized in 1950-51 with the positioning of dummy policemen on the corners of Brooks and Dixie in an effort to slow traffic down. A patrol lady was secured to help cross children at the Hillsborough-Dixie Trail and the Brooks-Bedford intersections. The Safety Patrol continued to operate, and the idea became a city-wide project which continues today.
Other assorted happenings during these years included the opening of the cafeteria for inspection, the sponsoring of a blanket accident insurance policy at $1.00 per child, and the addition of the north annex at Olds. At a particular PTA meeting in April of 1953, the featured talk on modern methods of teaching reading was given by Miss Frances Lacy, Elementary Supervisor of the Raleigh Public Schools. While the north annex at Fred Olds was being built in September of that same year, the three 7th grades of Fred Olds were temporarily housed in the new Ridge Road School. Coincidentally, this school is now known as Frances Lacy School, named for the lady who had spoken earlier at Olds. The 7th grades were able to return to Olds when the classroom addition had been completed.
I also found some materials I had been provided by Ernie Spence, a 1955 graduate of Hugh Morston High. Ernie had helped to organize his class reunion. In the 2005 reunion, Spence and his classmates had Hooper join them to mark the time they spent together 50 years ago at the downtown Raleigh high school.