John L. Hopkins Jr. ’60

John came to us from Hotchkiss. At Princeton, where his father, John, was a member of the Class of 1921, “Hoppie,” as we called him then, majored in politics, played varsity hockey all four years, dined at Ivy, and wrote his thesis on British and French colonialism in West Africa. 

After learning Spanish at the University of Madrid, John set out for South America to make his fortune growing coffee. Reconsidering that, after two years, he repaired to Italy and, after a fortuitous year studying writing while working for an eminent English poet there, he found his calling. He began keeping a journal of his peripatetic life and travels, which became source material for his nonfiction and inspiration for his fiction.

His travels in Europe and Africa landed him in Morocco in 1970, teaching at the American School of Tangier and involved with the expatriate American writers of the beat generation: Bowles, Burroughs, Williams, Ginsberg, and numerous others. After further travels he settled again in Morocco, publishing his first stories and his first novel. He trekked the deserts of Algeria and Morocco, lived in Marrakesh for five years, and traveled through Central and South America once more. In 1973 he returned to Tangier, where he married Ellen Ann Ragsdale in 1977. They moved to England in 1979, ultimately settling in a National Trust House in Oxfordshire. 

John died March 25, 2021, of Parkinson’s disease. He is survived by Ellen, three sons, and their families.