Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

engines are built largely for marine power
and for use in the industries. They not
only have an extensive sale in this coun-
try, but are shipped all over the world.
Mr. Hooker has always been connected
with the selling end of the business, where
he has been unusually successful, for he
is essentially a man of action, with a keen
sense of values, and a broad grasp of con-
ditions.
In his recreations Mr. Hooker is an outdoor
man, delighting in active sports and
the freedom of wide spaces. He enjoys
nothing better than long jaunts with rod
and gun. He cares little for the formali-
ties of social life, but is widely interested
in every public movement of the day, and
is closely identified with his University
fraternity, Theta Delta Chi.
Mr. Hooker married Jean Chalmers,
daughter of William Chalmers, of Norwalk,
Connecticut. Her parents were
born in Scotland. There is one daughter,
Nancy, born January 19, 1913. Mr. and
Mrs. Hooker are members of the Epis-
copal church at Riverside, and actively in-
terested in all the uplift work of the
church.
Mr. Hooker is such a man as the community
needs, and while he is far from
being a politician, he is fearless in his at-
titude on public questions, and puts all the
force of his personality into his public
duties when need arises. For some time
he served on the staff of Governor Cham-
berlain.
RYLE, John Joseph,
Physician, Public Official.
From the very earliest time man has endeavored
to preserve his genealogy, and
as one writer has aptly said, "A man is
a quotation from his ancestors," it becomes
more necessary to know who they
were. De Courcey tells us that all Irish
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
159
surnames with the prefix "O" and "Mc"
signify descent from the Milesians, and
we find many names which originally car-
ried this prefix are now written without
it. Among these is Ryle, which was
O'Reilly, and in the Gaelic was spelled
O'Ragheallaigh, O'Radheollaigh, signifying
learned or skillful. There were many
men prominent in the early history of
Ireland who bore this name, among them
being: Count Alexander O'Reilly, a Spanish
general, born in 1722; Edward
O'Reilly, the author and compiler of the
Irish-English dictionary ; and Hugh
O'Reilly, who was master in chancery and
clerk of the council under James II. In
1693 this Hugh O'Reilly published "Ire-
land's Case Briefly Stated." According to
O'Donavan, Colonel John O'Reilly was
the first to drop the prefix, "O."
John J. Ryle, scion of this name, was
born in Darien, Connecticut, January 21,
1872, son of John and Elizabeth (Flaherty)
Ryle. John Ryle, his father, was
born in Ballyduff, County Kerry, Ireland,
and died in March, 1914, aged seventysix
years. While yet in his teens, he went
from there to Australia, and was in the
gold mines a year or two and thence went
to California. In California Mr. Ryle
engaged in the hotel business, and after
the Civil War, came East, settling in
Stamford, Connecticut, where his broth-
ers had already settled. There he engaged
in farming, removing to Sound
Beach, where he had a farm which was
divided into three parcels of land. At
that time the desirability of Sound Beach
as a residence location was not heard of,
and Mr. Ryle disposed of his property
there in order to acquire a farm in the
Roxbury district of Stamford, where he
lived until his death. His father, John
Ryle, came with his wife in their late
years to Stamford, and their declining
years were made comfortable. The elder