Donald Blair Hopkins

Donald Blair Hopkins passed away on May 31, 2024 just two weeks shy of his 94th birthday. Of his generation, and much to the surprise of just about everyone, he was very nearly the last man standing. The list of those that passed away before him is long, but notably made up of his parents, Bill and "Mimi" Hopkins, his first wife Beatrice Mae Hopkins, his brother and sister in law Jerry & Carol Hopkins, his wingman Frank "Bud" Furniss, Bea's brother and sister in law Richard and Jan Williams, his grandson Noah Jameson Hopkins, and too many other family members and friends to list here.

Don was born in Indianapolis, Indiana on June 14th, 1930 the second child of Bill and Wilhelmina Hopkins. He and his brother Jerry, who was only 14 months older, were very close and enjoyed their time growing up together in the greater Indianapolis area spending much of their summer time at Lake Wawasee. As a youth, Don successfully competed on local diving teams and followed in his parents footsteps showing a love for music, in particular playing the piano.

In school, chemistry and calculus courses fueled his scientific and mathematical mind. This interest, combined with a desire to rebuild an old 1931 Chevrolet coupe that he and Jerry owned, led him to decide to study mechanical engineering at Purdue which he did for two years before joining the Air Force during the Korean War. Don's scholastic background served him well. While stationed at Kirkland AFB in New Mexico, in the Fall of 1952 he was selected to be part of a very secretive and small group of men to attend the University of Colorado at Boulder for an intensive 18-months of training in electrical engineering, nuclear physics, instrumentation and cryogenics research. This training, as we all eventually learned in an Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) article published for the 4th quarter in 2003, Don was finally allowed to speak on the work this group participated in during the early days of wet hydrogen bomb research. That was the singular purpose of those men chosen to attend special classes at Boulder. During the rest of his military career in the Air Force, Don also participated in other programs ranging from Radar Systems to Special Weapons Command (for which he was given an Atomic Energy Commission Q security clearance) to early research involving Cryogenics.

After the Air Force he moved to California and attended Cal Berkeley, where he obtained his Bachelors (1957) and Masters (1963) of Science degrees in Electrical Engineering. Don especially enjoyed engineering and research in new, unexplored technical areas and worked his entire career as a particle physicist at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (LBL), splitting his time between Berkeley and the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory later in his career. For nearly the entirety of his career, he worked on controlled magnetic fusion research and particle accelerator research. In his career he authored or co-authored over 65 technical papers, presenting some of them at national laboratories or universities all over the world. This was a great source of international travel for Don & Bea in their later years. Some of the titles of those research paper presentations were "The Two-Beam Accelerator: Structure Studies and 35 GHz Experiments" presented at the Particle Accelerator Conference in Vancouver BC, 1985, and "Design Considerations and Data for Gas-Insulated High Voltage Structures" presented at the 6th Symposium on Engineering Problems of Fusion Research, for the U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration. He applied for and was awarded patent # 5,182,524 for "Method and Apparatus for Stabilizing Pulsed Microwave Amplifiers" before he retired in 1989.

Of particular significance while attending Cal Berkeley, it was there that he was introduced to the woman that would eventually become his wife. Don was married to his first wife Bea for 46 years before she died of cancer in 2003. They had three sons, Bill, John, and Paul and raised their boys in Concord, California where he and Bea lived until his retirement. At that time they spent two plus years in their large 5th wheel trailer traveling across North America several times and continued to have smaller, shorter trips in their trailer after settling in Grass Valley, California. After Bea's passing, Don remarried Marilyn Tilford in 2008 and in 2018 they moved from Grass Valley to Sun City Roseville. They also traveled a great deal in the earlier years of their marriage.

Throughout his life, Don has always been well read and very handy with mechanical work, tools and woodworking. Until recently he continued to play the piano, and could also play several other instruments, always playing by ear. Don had always enjoyed playing games, especially a variety of card games and puzzles. To round out his physicist "tendencies", throughout his life he had other pursuits including flying, golfing, camping, deer hunting, volunteering for the YMCA, and so much more.

Don is survived by his sons Bill and wife MaryAnn, John and wife Cathy, and Paul. He also leaves behind John's three children Chase, Annabelle, and Madison. He is survived by Marilyn Tilford Hopkins, her children Dennis and wife Jennifer Geary, Chris and husband Mike Howard, Janet and husband Steve Mungle, and Larry Geary (passed 2019), along with her many, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.

Don used to tell his three sons, "...my life has been uncommonly blessed". It is all of us that were blessed by Don!

There will be a Memorial for Don August 31st in Auburn, CA, at 11:30, located at the First Congregational Church of Auburn.