Dewey's Class Ring Found

The story doesn’t end there. Almost fifty years after the crash that took Dewey Hooper’s life, there was yet another twist. On December 20, 1990, an Australian named Ron Deering was visiting his home country, and was exploring the wreckage of the Texas Terror on Mt. Straloch. While sifting through the debris, a glint of gold caught his eye. He bent down and picked up a gold 1940 Elon College class ring. Engraved on the inside of the band were the initials "DGH". Dogtags found nearby confirmed the name Dewey Glenn Hooper.

Deering recovered other items from the wreckage, and made a photographic record of the crash site. He returned to his home in Houston, Texas with the photographs, the ring, and other items he recovered from the site. In January of 1991, Deering got in contact with Elon College’s Development Office in hopes of tracking down a family member to return the ring to.

A secretary in the Development Office, Shirley Crawford, began searching for Hooper’s family members. After a couple of dead ends, Crawford sought help from the Elon’s Office of Publications. The college’s personnel newsletter, Second Monday, ran a story about it. A reader, former Dean of Admissions Marydell Bright, saw the story and called a neighbor, a man named W. W. Hooper, and asked if he might know the family of Dewey. Indeed, he did; it turned out that Dewey Hooper had been his cousin.

W. W. Hooper suggested Elon get in touch with C. Woodrow Hooper, one of Dewey’s brothers. Woodrow could not believe the news; he recalled at that time:

“We were first notified on Jan. 3, 1943, that our brother was missing. The War Department said that natives reported a plane crash on Dec. 18, 1942, but nothing could be done about searching the crash site until events in the war calmed down. They returned his effects later that year, but we never heard anything else until 1948, when some remains were returned to the states. We had a memorial service that year.”

Mr. Hooper also said that the family never gave up their efforts to find out more about their brother’s death, and that they were even thinking of traveling to Australia to try and find the wreckage of the plane.

Ron Deering aided the family by researching and exploring the wreckage, as well as mailing the class ring and photos of the crash site to them. On April 26, 1991, Deering came to Elon College and met Dewey's siblings: Myrtle Dellinger, C. V. "Pete" Hooper, and C. Woodrow Hooper; the Hoopers had the chance to thank Deering and to hear firsthand about his exploration of the Texas Terror and finding the ring.

The Hooper family donated the ring, artifacts, and Deering’s photographs of the crash site to Elon College, where they are preserved in the Archives & Special Collections of the Carol Grotnes Belk Library. The family also established the Dewey Glenn Hooper Memorial Scholarship.

Below are close-up photographs of Dewey's class ring.

Dewey Hooper's 1940 Elon College class ring. The ring features a garnet gemstone set in a bezel head.

This photograph is of the band, or shank, of the ring, with a focus on the inside of the shank. Engraved on the inside shank are Dewey Hooper's initials, "D. G. H.". As a result of the focus, the outside view of the ring is purposefully out of focus.