Ben Walter Hooper (October 13, 1870 – April 18, 1957), was an American politician who served two terms as the 31st governor of Tennessee from 1911 to 1915.

Elected as a Fusionist candidate, he was one of just three Republicans to hold the office from the end of Reconstruction to the last quarter of the 20th century.

[1] Hooper served as a member of the U.S. Railroad Labor Board (RLB) during the administration of President Warren G. Harding in the early 1920s.

He later worked as chief land purchasing agent for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

[2] Ben and his mother moved to Mossy Creek (modern Jefferson City) and afterwards to Knoxville, where he was placed in the St. John's Orphanage.

[1] During the Spanish–American War, Hooper served as captain of Company C in the 6th U.S. Volunteer Infantry,[1] which was commanded by fellow East Tennessean, Colonel Lawrence Tyson.

One faction, led by Edward W. Carmack, wanted to extend the state's Four Mile Law (which banned the sale of liquor within four miles of any school) throughout the state, while the other faction, led by Governor Malcolm R. Patterson, wanted major cities to remain exempt.

With this support, Hooper was able to win the Republican nomination, while Patterson's allies were defeated in judicial elections that August.

[1] Hooper also enacted a state pure food and drug law, and authorized counties to issue bonds to establish hospitals and to purchase school property.

[1] In the 1912 governor's race, state Republicans were divided between supporters of William Howard Taft and Theodore Roosevelt, with the latter's supporters, led by John Chiles Houk, breaking from the party and nominating William Poston for governor on a Progressive ticket.

[2] After his gubernatorial tenure ended, Hooper returned to his law practice in Newport, but remained active in Republican politics.

[4] In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Hooper was the chief land purchasing agent for what would become the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which was being developed on the Tennessee and North Carolina border.