John W. Hoopes Jr. ’43 died on June 15, 2016, in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.

(The following was published in The News Journal on June 28, 2016):

John W. Hoopes, Jr., 94, of Kennett Square, PA, died peacefully at Kendal at Longwood on June 16, 2016. Jack was born on May 30, 1922 in Wilmington, DE, and grew up in Kennett Square. He graduated from Wilmington Friends School in 1939, and from Bowdoin College (class of ’43) majoring in physics and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (class of ’44), Phi Beta Kappa, majoring in chemical engineering, in those institutions’ five year program. He was a member of Tau Beta PI. Jack then earned a master’s degree (1946) and a PhD in chemical engineering (1951) from Columbia University. After teaching in Columbia’s engineering school for four years, he took a position at Atlas Powder Co. in his hometown of Wilmington. At Atlas (which eventually became Astra Zeneca) Jack rose to director of the chemical engineering department. One of his early achievements was developing sorbitol from sugar. He worked as an engineer for twenty-six years. After retiring he took a job that he loved, teaching engineering at Widener University in Chester, PA, for eighteen years, until he was 79. He was an excellent photographer, and loved jazz, sailing, and bulldogs.

Survived by his wife, Marjorie Hoopes, daughters Kathryn (Robert) Bowen, Pamela Hoopes (Daniel Kelliher), grandchildren Alison Bowen, John Bowen, Caitlin Kelliher and Fiona Kelliher.