Dept of Philosophy Remembers Jasper Hopkins

Jasper Stephen Hopkins, Jr., who died of complications of Parkinson’s disease on January 23, 2023 at his home in Minneapolis, was born on November 8, 1936 in Atlanta, Georgia to Jasper S. Hopkins, Sr. and W. Ruth Hopkins. When he was but six months old, his family moved to Gary, Indiana, where his father had obtained work in the steel mills during the Great Depression. He attended Edison Elementary School from grades 1-6. Then his family moved to near-by Hobart, Indiana, where he completed grades 7-12, graduating in 1954 in a three-way tie for valedictorian. From 1954-58 he attended Wheaton College in Illinois, graduating magna cum laude with a major in philosophy. He continued on in philosophy at Harvard University, receiving an M.A. degree in 1959 and a Ph.D. in 1963. His first academic appointment (1963) was in Cleveland as an assistant professor in the Humanities Program at Case Institute of Technology, which later merged with Western Reserve University. After four years he undertook a research year in Munich, Germany, at which time he met and married (12/13/67) Gabriele H. Voigt. This research year was followed by a semester as visiting associate professor of philosophy at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville and by a year as an associate professor and as acting co-chairman of the Philosophy Department at the new branch of the University of Massachusetts in Boston. In 1970 he was appointed associate professor with tenure at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. He spent the rest of his career at the U of MN, being promoted to the rank of Professor in 1974 and retiring in 2013. He specialized in the philosophy of religion, the history of Medieval philosophy, Existentialism, and, more recently, medical ethics (having received an RN degree from the College of St. Catherine/St. Mary's Campus in May of 1990). His major publications are on St. Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109) and Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464). His webpage, which contains a curriculum vitae together with many of his publications, may be accessed at <http://www.jasper-hopkins.info>. His international studies led him to spend six months to a year in each of the cities of Munich, Graz, Paris, Rome, Padua, and Sienna. He is survived by his wife, Gabriele, by his youngest brother, Lawrence Allen, and by his sister, Deborah Ellen.

Funeral and burial arrangements will remain private for the immediate family.

Dominus ei requiem et beatitudinem aeternam donet.