Rev. Dr. William Hopkins

Services for the Rev. Dr. Williams Hopkins, 83, of Baltimore, Md., are at 1:30 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 14, 2009, at St. Thomas AME Church, 700 N. Broad St., Thomasville. The Rev. Emory Hopkins will officiate and interment is in Peaceful Rest Cemetery. Pallbearers are Edwin Paris, Timothy Hopkins, the Rev. John Culbreth, William Hopkins III, the Rev. Charles Bauknight and Kevin Bernard Hopkins. Rev. Hopkins died Nov. 1 at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. Born April 11, 1926, in Fowlstown, Ga., he was a son of the late Rev. and Mrs. William Hopkins Sr. He was married to Mildred Williams Glover who preceded him in death in 2007. He graduated from Lincoln Brown High School in nearby Meigs in 1947. Afterwards, he received training and education; he taught other airmen and served strenuously in the United States Air Force. He went on to become a successful businessman, first working as an insurance salesman before going into automobile sales, which would make him famous as president of the world's largest black-owned Chevrolet dealership, Hopkins Chevrolet in Atlanta. In this endeavor, he was cited by the mayor of Atlanta, President Jimmy Carter and Commerce Secretary Juanita Kreps for achieving recognition by black enterprise as one of the nation's 100 largest black businesses. He was invited to the President Barack Obama Inaugural Ball. He was called into the ministry later in life and began the ordination process in the 1990s, receiving a PhD in theology and biblical counseling from Belford University in 2007. In 1997, he received a bachelor of philsophy from Morgan State University. In 1995, he began tenure as president of Wisdom Ministry at Bethel AME Church in Baltimore. In 2002, he was founder and senior pastor at Open Door Church in Baltimore and associate pastor of Apostolic Church of Balitmore. He also served as a board member to Troop 1300 Boy Scouts of America; as a class leader at Bethel AME Church; member of the Chamber of Commerce of Atlanta; member of Leadership Atlanta Alumni Associatioin; fundraiser for the Jimmy Carter presidential campaign; member of Cadillac Crest Club; member of the national Democratic party; member of Baltimore Association of International Business; member of NAACP; member of Golden Key Honor Society; and chairman of the board of Nation University, Baltimore, amony many other affiliations. He was the recipient of numerous awards in his lifetimes, including General Motors sales incentives awards, a leadership award from the U.S. Air Force Military School, human relations awards from the School of Personal Achievement and many athletic awards in softball, boxing, bowling, walking and track. Survivors include sons, William L. Hopkins III, Kevin B. Hopkins both of Las Vegas, Nev.; daughter, Cynthia D. Hopkins of Las Vegas; grandson, William L. Hopkins IV of Las Vegas; granddaughter, Natasha Hopkins of Las Vegas; grandson, Dizjay Hopkins of Las Vegas; stepgrandson, Paul Terrell of Baltimore; sisters, Johnnie Mae Davis of Washington, D.C., Marie Bailey of Valdosta, Delphia Hill, the Rev. L.H. Jackson both of Thomasville. Annie Pearl Clark (Ira Lee) of Valdosta, Katie Mae Hopkins of Atlanta, Willie Mae Hayes (Homer) of Valdosta. — Hatcher-Peoples Funeral Home