Kathryn L. Hopwood (1960-1961)

Twenty-First President

Kathryn Louise Hopwood, the seventh woman to serve ACPA as president, became president-elect as a result of the 1959 elections. At Cleveland, the an­nouncement of her election by the chairman of the ACPA Nomination Committee was reported at the Sunday evening, March 24, 1959 Executive Council meeting in Hotel Cleveland’s Parlor 9. She was intro­duced with other officers and Executive Council members at the morning Business session on Wednes­day, March 24, in Hotel Cleveland’s Parlors 1-3. Kathryn Hopwood was Dean of Students and Professor of Psychology and Philosophy at Hunter College of The City University of New York, a position that became effective on September 1, 1955.

Kathryn Hopwood was born in Lenox, northeastern Ohio, and graduated from Jefferson High School in June 1926. She applied to Oberlin College in January that year and entered the college in September. Four years later, 1930, she received the A.B. degree, majoring in English Literature. For the next eight years, she taught English at Shelby (Ohio) High School. Then she accepted positions as Teacher and Girls’ Counselor at Elyria High School from 1938-43. In 1940 she received the M.A. degree from Oberlin, a short distance from Elyria. As for her bachelor’s degree her specialization area for the master’s was English Literature.

After 13 years of teaching and counseling in Ohio high schools, Hopwood joined the administrative staff at The Ohio State University in 1943. First employed as Assistant Dean of Women, she was promoted to As­sociate Dean in 1949. In 1944 she was named Instruc­tor of Psychology. Meanwhile, she took interim gradu­ate study at the University of Chicago, University of Wisconsin, and Oxford University, England. Then she worked toward her Ph.D. in Administration of Higher Education at OSU. Her major adviser was Harold Pepinsky, who became ACPA president during 1955-56. She was granted the doctoral degree in 1953. The title of her dissertation was “Expectations of Univer­sity Freshman Women.” In 1954 she was promoted to Assistant Professor. Kathryn Hopwood then accepted her appointment at Hunter College until her retire­ment in 1974.

Hopwood appeared on the ACPA convention pro­gram at the Chicago meetings on Wednesday, March 28, 1951. She was one of the three ACPA members who spoke at a section meeting titled Problems of Group Orientation and Guidance. Her talk was “Career Days and Job Forums—Philosophy and Purposes.” The general subject of the Monday afternoon, April 12, 1954 session in which she participated at the convention in Buffalo the next year was Inte­gration of the Union Building Activities in the Student Personnel Pro­gram.

Hopwood attended the 1955 ACPA conven­tion at the Conrad Hilton Hotel in Chicago. At the College Section meeting on Tuesday afternoon, April 5, she spoke about student personnel practices planned especially for commuting students of metropolitan or urban universities or colleges with over 3,000 stu­dents. In the spring of 1955, Dean Hopwood was appointed by ACPA President Pepinsky to chair the ACPA Policy and Planning Committee. She and her committee members met in October 1955. Then they contacted the ACPA membership to help clarify the goals, services, and membership needs of ACPA. Also, Hopwood was the ACPA representative on the APGA Constitution Committee during 1955-56.

At the 1956 ACPA convention in Washington, DC, Hopwood reported for the Policy and Planning Com­mittee at the Sunday evening, March 25 Executive Council meeting. Further discussion on her report was continued at the Tuesday morning, March 27 Business session and the Thursday afternoon Execu­tive Council meeting. Her committee was continued. Dean Hopwood attended the Wednesday morning, March 28 special interest section meeting on the Training of College Student Personnel Administrators. That afternoon, she led a discussion group on the same topic. On Thursday morning at the ACPA general session titled “What Next for ACPA: Policy and Plan­ning,” she reported for her committee.

Besides chairing the Policy and Planning Commit­tee of 20 members during 1956-57, Dean Kathryn Hopwood was ACPA liaison representative to the United States National Student Association (USNSA). She was one of 23 ACPA members who attended the 1957 pre-convention workshop at Detroit. Also, Dean Hopwood attended the three Executive Council meetings and the two Business sessions. She presented the report of the Policy and Planning Committee at the Sunday evening, April 14 Executive Council meeting and suggested that the committee be re-evaluated. At the Executive Council meeting on Wednesday, April 17, Hopwood emphasized the duplication of effort between her committee and the workshops. She spoke on behalf of the formation of a long-range planning committee.

During 1957-58, Dean Hopwood was a member-at-large on the ACPA Executive Council. She served on the ACPA Committee on Committees and was the liaison person to the commission of Educational Organization, NCCJ (1957-60). At the 1958 ACPA convention in St. Louis, Dean Hopwood attended the first two of three Executive Council meetings and both Business sessions. At the ACPA Executive Council meeting on Sunday evening, March 30 and the Busi­ness session the next afternoon (after the luncheon), Kathryn Hopwood’s name was included among the 13 delegates-at-large elected to the APGA Assembly for 1958-59. At the Sunday Executive Council meeting, she distributed copies of her report as the ACPA liaison to NCCJ. Near the close of that Executive Council meeting, the ACPA president requested Hopwood to choose two other persons to serve with her as an ad hoc Constitution Revision Committee to review ACPA workshop materials and arrange in constitu­tional form the purposes and several alternatives for membership eligibility. Her report as amended was presented to the ACPA membership at the second Business session Wednesday morning. During the regular convention program Tuesday morning, Dean Hopwood was one of four people who discussed the general topic Political Extremists in the Campus Ex­tracurricular Program.

Hopwood, who went to England during the summer of 1958, was one of six members of the ACPA Constitution Committee during 1958-59. At the Cleve­land convention in 1959 when she became president-­elect, she attended the Luncheon in the ballroom of Hotel Hollenden on Monday, March 23 and was seated at the head table. Hopwood participated on a conven­tion program scheduled Wednesday morning, March 25 titled “The Role of Students in Policy Making.” She was in attendance at the three Executive Council meetings and the two Business sessions.

The 1960 ACPA convention was held in Philadel­phia. President-elect Hopwood presided at the annual ACPA Luncheon Monday afternoon, April 11. Tuesday morning, she was one of five persons who discussed The Responsibility of Student Personnel Workers for Student Values. She attended the first three Executive Council meetings and presided at the fourth meeting on Thursday morning, April 14. At the first Executive Council meeting on Saturday, April 9, Hopwood sub­mitted the budget for May 1, 1960-April 30, 1961. Near the close of the second ACPA Business session on Wednesday afternoon, April 13, the ACPA president gave the gavel to Kathryn Hopwood. In May 1960, President Hopwood and the presi­dent-elect represented ACPA at the APGA Executive Council two-day meetings in Washington, DC. Early in 1960 she traveled to Philadelphia by invitation to meet with the national officers of USNSA. ACPA membership on January 31, 1961 was 2,673.

The 1961 ACPA convention (the thirty-fourth) was held in Denver, Sunday through Thursday, March 26-30. This was ACPA’s ninth annual meeting as a Division of APGA. ACPA headquarters was the Denver-Hilton Hotel. President Hopwood presided at the first two of three Executive Council meetings and both business sessions. At the first ACPA Executive Coun­cil meeting Sunday evening, President Hopwood sug­gested the possibility of a federation of all groups working at the college level. A considerable amount of discussion followed. Past-presidents of ACPA who attended (by invitation) the annual luncheon on Monday, March 27 and sat at a special table were: Lloyd-Jones, Williamson, Pepinsky, Blaesser, Kamm, and Northrup. Kathryn Hopwood issued a special citation of merit to Robert Callis, immediate past-president, and then she delivered her presidential address titled “Who’s for the Ark?”

She co-chaired the ACPA Self Study Committee during 1962-63 when President Melvene D. Hardee was in office.

On April 30, 1983 she moved back to Columbus, Ohio. At OSU she was appointed a “Visiting Scholar” in the Graduate School, Department of Psychology. Also, she was the Secretary to the Commission on Social Policies on Aging at the Mershon Research Center and assisted, upon occasion, with courses dealing with the problems of aging. She stated that she would rather pursue her professional interests without financial recompense than to learn to play bridge. When she was being trained in OSU’s doctoral work, her emphasis was on late adolescence and the problems of young adults. On October 15, 1990 she wrote: “I guess we thought the aging people had no problems. Now that I’m 82 years old, I know better!” She died on April 9, 1995 in Columbus, OH. A Memorial Resolution honoring her appeared in the June 1995 issue of ACPA Developments.