Chip Will Always Have a Place in My Heart…

~Shared by Mike Morgan~

Rest in peace, my friend, Chip Hooper. Chip was a childhood friend of mine. He was one of my best friends from the time that I was about 7 years old until we were aged 12. My family moved around that time and though we saw and talked to each other occasionally, our lives didn’t intersect enough. I can remember many sleepovers at his parents house in Glen Ellyn – staying up late to watch “Creature Features” and going through his comic books while he often battled, in the way that brothers and sisters do, with his sister Nancy, who was just a little older than us. Mostly, I remember laughing a lot around Chip.

I’m sure many of my swim-related facebook friends will remember him as well and maybe some of my music or photography friends. Chip and I shared a lot of the same hobbies and interests though it’s been about 20 years since we last spoke, which is a shame because I did think of him often. We were on a national record setting medley relay team together in those early years of swimming (I don’t know why, but I remember our time was 2:12.9 though I don’t remember our age at the time). Chip was already very into photography and as a 10 or 11 year old was enterprising enough to take photos of all of the kids on our team, post them the Monday after our most recent swim meet so that parents could purchase them. He already had a dark room and top notch equipment at that age that he paid for through these sales. I think of that today and marvel at how a child so young would do that. I remember being in the dark room with him and his showing me how to develop photos and he ignited a deep interest for me in photography.

Oddly, I was thinking about Chip on the day that he passed away because I was telling my son about the Dr. Pepper Invitational swim meet, which was notable to us because if you won your heat, they gave you a six pack of Dr. Pepper. Chip, being extra savvy, would enter himself at slower than normal times to ensure that he would win all of his heats and walk away with cases of Dr. Pepper.

Chip organized a reunion of sorts for myself and some of our closest childhood friends when we were all out of school and I talked to him from my workplace of doing a project together that never materialized. Chip will always have a place in my heart as one of those treasured childhood friends that you experience the joys of being kids with when you have no responsibility other than to try to have fun. I’m shocked and stunned at his passing. He’ll always represent fun, creativity, motivation and accomplishment to me. He was simply a great friend to have as a young boy. I wish his family and those close to him my sincere condolences. Know that your Dad and friend was a great guy even at an early age.