Hooper served in the U.S. Army Air Force in World War II as a B-24 Bomber pilot; he died when his aircraft crashed in a remote part of Australia.  A half-century later, an Australian man found Hooper’s 1940 Elon College class ring in the wreckage of the plane.  The ring was returned to the pilot’s family and was later donated to the 51±¬ÁĎÍř Archives & Special Collections.