Richard M. Hook

Hooker is dead, to begin with. There is no doubt about that. Born Richard Matthew Hook on November 6, 1927, in Shaker Heights, Ohio, “Hooker” — as he was universally proclaimed — died March 1, 2026, attended by family at his beloved farm on Hio Ridge Road, exactly where he wanted to be.

What to spotlight of this remarkable and long life, which ranged over 98 years and three continents, including long stints in Nairobi, Kenya, and Jakarta, Indonesia? There was his earnest commitment to developmental economics — read “banking” — which he practiced for much of his career with the Harvard Institute for International Development, a think-tank of the storied university. There was his fondness for old cars, which he featured regularly in the Fryeburg Fair Parade. There was his rapture at the nature and mountains of Maine, which he defended against those who would erect cell phone towers on their peaks (I’m looking at you, US Cellular…). There was his remarkable musicality on piano and accordion and with his rich baritone, practiced over many years with the late Lillian Lee Morse’s Singers’ Workshop.  And there was his tremendous love of words: his last, in this life, were to request a dictionary. We shall never know what word he was wondering about.