Don Hooper
In kindergarten, Don Hooper was the last to master coloring inside the lines. But with an undergrad degree and a master’s from Harvard, even on Hooper’s screwiest days, people surmised erroneously that he must be smarter than he seems. Hooper is or has been: a Peace Corps teacher in Botswana; a back-to-land Vermont invader; goat milker; farmers’ marketeer; dirt worshiper; tree hugger; legislator; Secretary of State. With his partner Allison (co-founder of Vermont Creamery), the Hoopers have produced three, side-hill, entrepreneurial lads, Miles, Sam, and Jay, who perpetuate revered Vermont traditions of thinking outside the box, earnest tinkering, and trying not to make things worse. Grandkids Olcott and Weston call Hoops “Mothusi,” which means “helper,” the generous nickname his students gave him in Botswana.
