Later Life
After his gubernatorial tenure ended, Hooper continued his law practice in Newport and maintained his interest in public affairs and Republican politics. In 1921, U.S. President Warren G. Harding appointed Hooper to the U.S. Railroad Labor Board in Chicago. Hooper became a national figure in labor-management arbitration when he worked to halt a railroad strike planned for October 30, 1921.
Hooper was the chief land purchasing agent in the establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on the Tennessee and North Carolina border.
In 1934, at the age of sixty-four, Hooper launched an unsuccessful political comeback attempt as the Republican nominee against Democratic U.S. Senator Kenneth McKellar. Hooper received 35.8 percent of the vote in the heavily Democratic year. Oddly, in 1916, Hooper had also lost to McKellar in the latter's first election to the Senate. McKellar was a year older than Hooper, but each died months apart in 1957.
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