Skip to main content

William Hopson

Thu, 04/07/2022 - 09:08

Bill Hopson, an Army veteran and founding member of Calvary Baptist Church in East Hampton in 1954, died on March 29 at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital. The East Hampton resident was 95.

The church's last surviving charter member, Mr. Hopson had several roles: trustee, groundskeeper, member of the Brotherhood group and men's choir, and volunteer at the annual chicken barbecue.

An enthusiastic fisherman and gardener who especially enjoyed tending roses, Mr. Hopson had a career with Hren Nurseries first and later was a caretaker at the Chauncey estate in East Hampton. When the property was sold to Arthur Ross in the early 1970s, it was on the condition that Mr. Hopson would remain. He became semiretired at age 65, "but it wasn't until he was 90 years old that he announced he would not be working anymore," his family wrote.

William Hopson was born in Drewryville, Va., on April 5, 1926, to John and Lillar Hopson. Their large family moved to Bridgehampton when he was a boy, and he went on to graduate from Bridgehampton High School.

He served in the Pacific during World War II as a transportation sergeant and was honorably discharged in December of 1946.
It was at the First Baptist Church in Bridgehampton where Mr. Hopson met Bertha Lee Hartwell of East Hampton. They married in September of 1950, had four children, and enjoyed 63 years together. She died in 2014.

Mr. Hopson's family wrote that they will take comfort in the words he spoke before his death: "I'm 95. I've had a good life. I'm ready to go."

Mr. Hopson is survived by his children, Robert Hopson and Alan Hopson of East Hampton, Lois Collins of Calverton, and Lee Ann Gore of Fayetteville, W.V. He also leaves seven grand-children, William T. Collins IV, Tygue L. Collins, William H. Hopson, Julia Hopson Williamson, Charles E. Gore III, Brian C. Gore, and Jonathan W. Hopson. Eleven great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren also survive, as do two sisters, Mary Taylor of Riverhead and Martha Craggette of Chesapeake, Va.

Visiting hours will be on Sunday from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton, with a funeral planned for Monday at 11 a.m. at Calvary Baptist Church followed by burial with military honors at Cedar Lawn Cemetery. His family has suggested memorial donations to the American Cancer Society at cancer.org.

Villages

Owl's Death Prompts Call for Bird-Friendly Building

Window strikes kill up to a billion birds annually and rank up there with cats and habitat destruction as the leading causes of recent steep declines. After the recent death of a much-watched Eurasian eagle-owl that was set loose from the Central Park Zoo, a bill calling for bird-friendly building measures has been revived in the New York Assembly and Senate.

Mar 28, 2024

Item of the Week: Gardiner Family Gossip From 1889

On July 16, 1889, while staying in Lenox, Mass., Sarah Diodati Gardiner Thompson wrote to her daughter Sarah Thompson Gardiner, who was vacationing at Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. Family news was top of mind.

Mar 28, 2024

Holy Week Services From Bridgehampton to Montauk

Holy Week services begin on Sunday, and churches here have special schedules throughout the week. 

Mar 21, 2024

Your support for The East Hampton Star helps us deliver the news, arts, and community information you need. Whether you are an online subscriber, get the paper in the mail, delivered to your door in Manhattan, or are just passing through, every reader counts. We value you for being part of The Star family.

Your subscription to The Star does more than get you great arts, news, sports, and outdoors stories. It makes everything we do possible.