Emery Bopp

Emery Bopp was born on May 13, 1924, in Corry, Pennsylvania. He grew up in Louisville, Kentucky. He served in the United States Navy during WWII achieving the rank of pharmacist's mate. Never at sea, he was posted in several naval hospitals, including one in Asheville, North Carolina.

From his youth onward Bopp showed great proclivity for visual art, and after the war he attended Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. Bopp studied drawing with Kosrov Ajootian and painting with Fritz Eichenberg and enjoyed the great museums and galleries in Manhattan. It was during these years in Brooklyn that Bopp met and married his wife, Marian (Meyer).

After earning a certificate from Pratt, he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Yale University School of Art. He was a student of Josef Albers, Alvin Eisenmann, Alvin Lustig, and Willem De Kooning.

Following undergraduate training Bopp applied for teaching positions at a number of Christian colleges which had art programs. He accepted a position at Bob Jones University, and he and Marian moved to Greenville, South Carolina, in the fall of 1951. In 1953 the young professor took over the chair of the Division of Art, a position he held for 39 years. He taught at Bob Jones University until his retirement in 2001.

Bopp completed coursework in art history at New York University, and in 1967 earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from Rochester Institute of Technology. Bopp was active in the South Carolina Artists' Guild, competed regularly, exhibited extensively, and served as adjudicator for numerous competitions throughout the Southeast. He won numerous awards and his work is represented in several permanent collections and museums, including the Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy (Andover, Mass.), George Thomas Hunter Gallery (Chattanooga, Tenn.), South Carolina Arts Commission (Columbia, S.C.), Erskine College (Due West, S.C.), the High Museum of Art (Atlanta, Ga.), and the Greenville County Museum of Art (Greenville, S.C.). His paintings have been published in two printed collections.

Bopp was a founding member of Hampton III Gallery in Taylors, in which he remained involved until recent years. Bopp had his final exhibition at the gallery in November of 2006.

Bopp is survived by his wife of 58 years, Marian Meyer Bopp; his three children, Sue Ann and her husband Greg Phillips of Greenville, and their children Maria, Nathan, Melissa, and Matthew, Laurie and her husband Warren Hartz of Hamilton, New Jersey, and Jay and his wife Nancy of Greenville and their children Chelsea and Hatherleigh.

Funeral services will be Monday, February 5, 2007, at 2 p.m. at Faith Free Presbyterian Church, with Dr. Allen Cairns and the Rev. David Brame. Private committal will be in Woodlawn Memorial Park.

The family will receive friends Sunday, February 4, from 3 until 5 p.m. at The Mackey Mortuary, Century Drive.

A message of condolence may be sent to the family by visiting www.mackeymortuary.com.