He was born in Exeter, Devon, and educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he became a fellow in 1577. In 1584 he got married, resigned from his college position, and became rector of Drayton Beauchamp in Buckinghamshire. In 1585, he was appointed Master of the Temple, and soon came into conflict with Walter Travers, a leading Puritan. The first four books of Hooker's Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie were published in 1594, arguing for a middle way between the dominance of Rome and the extremism of the Puritans. In 1595 Hooker retired to a country living in Kent in order to have time to spend on completing the work, but the last volumes were published posthumously.
"On any list of great English theologians, the name of Richard Hooker would appear at or near the top. His masterpiece is The Laws Of Ecclesiastical Polity. Its philosophical base is Aristotelian, with a strong emphasis on natural law eternally planted by God in creation. On this foundation, all positive laws of Church and State are developed from Scriptural revelation, ancient tradition, reason, and experience." [1]
Also see http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/hooker.htm for an already-comprehensive treatment of his life and works.
Richard Hooker (February 1, 1924 - November 4, 1997) was an American writer. Born H. Richard Hornberger in Trenton, New Jersey, his most famous work was MASH, which served as the basis for a successful movie and television series. He had been a physician for the United States Army during the Korean War, and used his experience at a mobile army surgical hospital as background for his work.
Even after the success of his book, he remained a surgeon in Waterville, Maine until his retirement in 1988.