Celia Stone Hopkins

AMONG the losses death brought to the College this year, none was felt more keenly or more widely in the Dartmouth family than the passing of Mrs. Ernest Martin Hopkins on May 18. As much as any teacher or administrator she served Dartmouth faithfully and unselfishly for the greater part of her life; and as the wife of President Hopkins she shared in the accomplishments of one of the greatest administrations in Dartmouth's history.

At the funeral service in Rollins Chapel, Bishop John T. Dallas said: "Celia Hopkins was born near here. She went to school in Hanover and played with the boys and girls of the community. She grew up into a woman of strength and charm and dignity. For three decades, at her husband's side, she watched over Dartmouth College. Through wars and hard times, she was sensitive to the joys that swept through the town and college as well as to the tragedies which cut deep into the lives of parents and boys. She was partner in a work that spread across the nation. In her heart were not only husband and daughter but every man and woman of the Dartmouth fellowship."

For nearly all of her 72 years Mrs. Hopkins lived in Hanover. Soon after her birth in Lebanon, N. H„ her parents, Charles Warren and Ida (Marshall) Stone, moved to Hanover and for many years lived on a large farm on Pineo Hill. For ten years, from 1899 until his retirement in 1909, Mrs. Hopkins was private secretary to President William Jewett Tucker of Dartmouth, a position she also filled for President Ernest Fox Nichols during the first year of his administration.

She was married February 2, 1911, to Mr. Hopkins and during the next five years was away from Hanover for the only extended period during her life. After living in Boston and Philadelphia, where Mr. Hopkins filled industrial positions, she returned to Hanover in 1916 when Mr. Hopkins became President of the College. In the role of First Lady of Dartmouth, Mrs. Hopkins was hostess to thousands of students, faculty members, alumni and other visitors to the College, and countless official occasions were graced by her presence and unobtrusive management.

Mrs. Hopkins never lost the interest in gardening which began on her father's farm, and from this activity she derived one of her greatest pleasures. From girlhood until some years after her marriage she rode horseback, and horses and dogs were also a lifelong interest. In community life she was a member of the Church of Christ and was active in the affairs of the Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital.

Upon President Hopkins' retirement in 1945. Mrs- Hopkins established their new Hanover home at 29 Rope Ferry Road. For the past several years, however, she had been subject to increasingly serious heart attacks and had been forced to curtail her domestic and social activities. A few months ago Mrs. Hopkins' condition took a serious turn for the worse and she died at home on May 18, attended by her immediate family.

In addition to' President Emeritus Hopkins, she is survived by her daughter Ann, Mrs. John Rust Potter ('38) of Danen, Conn., and two grandsons, John Rust Potter Jr. and Martin Hopkins Potter; also by two sisters, Mrs. Grace Tibbetts of Hanover and Miss Georgia Stone of Melrose, Mass.; and two brothers, Charles R. Stone of Hanover and Herman M. Stone of Lyme, N. H. Three other sisters and another brother are deceased.

At the funeral service in Rollins Chapel, May 19, hundreds of friends were in attendance. President and Mrs. Dickey headed the representatives of the official College. Members of the Dartmouth Board of Trustees were also present, and the National Life Insurance Company of Montpelier, Vt„ of which Mr. Hopkins is now chairman of the board, was represented by a number of its top officers, including President Deane C. Davis and Fred A. Howland '87, former president and board chairman.

MRS. HOPKINS SHOWN WITH PRESIDENT EMERITUS HOPKINS IN A PICTURE TAKEN IN 1947