Guest Opinion by Perry Hooper Jr.
The Montgomery County Probate Office has always meant more to me than simply another branch of local government. It is part of my family’s history, and it is an office I grew up respecting because I saw firsthand how much responsibility comes with serving the people who depend on it.
My father, Perry O. Hooper Sr., was elected Montgomery County Probate Judge in November 1964 and served from 1965 until 1974. He was reelected in 1970, and during his tenure his fellow probate judges from across Alabama elected him president of the Alabama Probate Judges Association. In 1974, the people of Montgomery County elected him circuit judge, beginning the next chapter of a judicial career that would ultimately take him to the position of Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court…