Robert Woodhull Hopkins, 95, passed away Saturday, April 6, at Stamford Hospital.
Robert Hopkins, 95, passed away on April 6. Funeral services will be private.
He was husband to Joan Dreher Hopkins, the son of Robert Carl and Eleanor Adams Hopkins and little brother of Sylvia Hopkins Siegler. He was a beloved husband, son, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and brother.
Bob was born in Orange, New Jersey, on February 9, 1929. The family would move to Connecticut a few years later, and Bob would become a proud lifelong resident of Darien.
He attended Kimball Union Academy, the class of 1947, in Meriden, New Hampshire, where he excelled academically and athletically, twice serving as class president. From KUA, Bob went on to Dartmouth, following in the footsteps of his uncles Louis, Ernest (who went on to be the 11th president of Dartmouth) and his father, Robert. At Dartmouth Bob continued to excel, majoring in economics, and playing baseball, hockey and varsity soccer.
Dartmouth, and Hanover, would be a treasured community in Bob’s life for many years to come, marked by many reunion trips and close bonds with his fellow ’51 classmates.
After graduating from Dartmouth, Bob married Joan Dreher Hopkins, daughter of Monroe Franklin Dreher and Elizabeth Stirling Dreher, also of Darien, on April 11, 1953. They had met eight years prior, in Darien, at a Cinderella Dance.
Bob enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1951 as a naval cadet, enrolling in the flight training program in Pensacola, Florida. He was commissioned as an ensign. He flew propellor Corsairs, then jet Banshees, serving as a lieutenant from 1953 to 1955 during the Korean War on the USS Valley Forge aircraft carrier.
However active his life may have been, Bob’s true love and dedication was to his wife, Joan, and his three daughters, Christina, Elizabeth and Susan. Three generations of Hopkins family were deeply fortunate to spend decades together in Darien and in Delray Beach, Florida. In recent years, Bob had greeted two great-granddaughters, both of whom will cherish early memories and photographs with “Great Grandad.”
As a passionate golfer, he was a member of Woodway Country Club, in Darien where he served as president, and the St. Andrews Club, Delray Beach, Florida. He was an active member of the Connecticut State Golf Association, serving as president from 1995-1996. In his later years, and up until not that long ago, he was a course rater, rating and playing almost every golf course in the state.
He was deeply loved and will be forever missed. The funeral services will be private and held at a future date. Memorial remembrances may be made to Kimball Union Academy at 7 Campus Center Drive, Meriden, NH. 03770.
— an obituary from Lawrence Funeral Home, where online condolences may be left