Kidder Memorial Home
Obituary: George Lawrence (Tim) Hopkins, Jr.
Dateline: Franklin
George Lawrence (Tim) Hopkins, Jr., whose Hopkins Auto
Service here created a new market in three states for 1986-1996
model Volvos and a painting firm for interior and all aspects of
commercial and residential properties here and in the Canton,
Georgia, region died at his home on Main Street here in the
early morning of November 2.
His sister, Frances Gibbes Hopkins, said the cause was a heart
attack. He was 67 years old and had been in apparent good
health.
In early 2000, Tim was also widely known in Antique Tractor
Pulling circles, keeping records, selling advertising for the
Tractor Pulling Bulletin, and competing. When he won top
slots in two weight classes with his 1956 WD Allis Chalmers at
Shelburne Farms in 2002, he was asked what he liked about the
sport, replying, “This tractor was at work on the farm when
Dwight Eisenhower was president, Elvis Presley appeared on
the Ed Sullivan Show, and Micky Mantle won the Triple Crown.”
“He always brought a smile to my face,” said Haston Library Director Kathleen Engstrom who with many in
the village knew him as a painter whose care with his work became his trademark. He was at work at several
locations in the village and had been hired in October to paint the East Franklin Church next summer.
“He was someone who was always giving a helping hand, very well-spoken, a lover of history, a friendly and
outgoing person,” Fran Hopkins said.
For a man who spread good will amid his fellow townspeople quietly, it gave them pleasure to see him at work
at its most public building, the Haston Library, wearing his signature paint-spotted shorts, surrounded by pots
of paints and tools to make minor repairs. But his appearance at a recent Franklin United Church’s turkey
dinner was a surprise, dressed as he was in tie, a latest style autumn-orange jacket, creased khaki pants, and
polished, dark leather shoes. Often urged to run for public office, he seemed to be just the man for it.
“Always ready and willing to help in any way he could, he was giving me advice about my cantankerous Volvo
three days ago,” wrote his lifelong friend, John Pierce, in a Facebook posting. “He was unfailingly generous,
benevolent, and charitable. He was a person….who would help with any public-spirited project, or to assist
any person who needed a helping hand.”
Pierce remembered their childhood.
“As a 10-year-old or so – it was Timmy or Hoptimmykins in those days – he started coming to the Pierce farm
nearly every day during the summer. He rode his blue bike from the Hopkins homestead in Franklin village to
the farm about three miles away….the Pierce brothers (Kenton & John) …. Learned to ride a two-wheeler on
Timmy’s blue bike. Timmy was more cosmopolitan than the Pierce boys, and ushered them into worlds they
otherwise probably wouldn’t have visited.”
The posting went on, “For example: snakes. The farm used an Allis-Chalmers round bailer; it wasn’t necessary
to promptly stow the bales in the barn, since rain would run off the tightly packed round shape. It was
necessary, however, to turn the bales 180 degrees before picking them if they had been on the ground several
days, so that the damp underside could dry out.
“It was boy’s work to roll the bales over and …all sorts of creatures could be found, including snakes. Kenton
and John were…wary of snakes, but not Timmy. The three boys reasoned that since snakes were coldblooded, they would keep you cool in a hot hayfield if put in your shirt or under your hat. So they tried it.”
And there were cows and there was music.
89 Grand Avenue, Swanton, Vermont 05488*(802) 868-3331*Fax(802)868-7000
Kidder Memorial Home
John Pierce write, “ He talked to the cows…we had no idea what he was saying but the cows seemed to
understand, and to have a small pocket transistor radio was necessary at all times…[It] would sound pretty
good when placed with the speaker down on the mouth of an open jar. We preferred popular rock—mainly
doo-wop and Motown at the time. We would change the station on the barn radio during chores, but the
adults would change it right back to CJAD and their fuddy-duddy music. Later on Timmy interested me in
classical music, especially music you could drum your fingers and whistle to. Movie theme music by Max
Steiner and Dimitry Tiomkin were special favorites.”
George (Tim) L. Hopkins, Jr. was born February 23, 1948 in Hagerstown, Maryland, and spent his childhood in
nearby St. James where his father, at St. James School, taught all the science classes and upper-level
mathematics courses as head of the Math Dept., directed the chapel choir, Glee Club, and Delta Society, and
played the chapel organ. In 2011 Tim attended a ceremony at St. James where his father was elected into the
Kerfoot Society for Distinguished Faculty and his portrait was unveiled. “It is so great to have him
remembered at Saint James. He and mother dearly loved the school.”
At the school his mother, Caroline Elizabeth (Betty) Hackett Hopkins assisted at the school switchboard,
helped in the bookstore, and every week arranged the flowers for the Sunday campus religious service and
began raising three children. In 1965 they moved to Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., where Tim’s father, Larry, was head
of the math department at a private girls’ secondary school. They retired to Franklin to Larry’s grandparents’
home in 1985. Tim attended St. James School and Dobbs Ferry High School, and was graduated from
Bellows Free Academy in 1968. He attended Johnson State College and Castleton State College after leaving
BFA.
Tim Hopkins was predeceased by his mother and father, and by a sister, Barbara, who died in 1967 of Marfans
Syndrome.
He leaves his former wife, Dodie Fretwell, a stepson and stepdaughter, Dusty and Destiny LaBossiere, all of
Marietta, Georgia, and his ex-sister and brother-in-law Dedra and Joe Meyer of Woodstock, Georgia.
A Memorial Service will be held at Franklin United Church on Nov. 13 at 1:30 p.m. The Reverend Jason
McConnell will officiate. Interment will take place at the family lot in the Franklin Village Cemetery at a later
time.
Gifts in Tim’s memory may be made to the Haston Library in Franklin, and to the National Resource on
Attention Deficit Disorder in Adults and Children, at www.CHADD.org.
This remembrance obituary was prepared by Nat Worman of Franklin with the assistance of Tim’s sister.
Arrangements are under the direction of The Kidder Memorial Home, Swanton, Vermont.
To offer private online condolences please visit: www.kiddermemorialhome.com
89 Grand Avenue, Swanton, Vermont 05488*(802) 868-3331*Fax(802)868-7000