The Rev. Dr. C. Leon Hopper, whose deep institutional dedication to liberal religion and social justice undergirded a 39 year career that embraced parish ministry, local community service, leadership in national UU youth organization, ministerial education, and international interfaith work, died on June 19, 2016, aged 89, after many years of living with Parkinson’s disease.
As he moved out from local parish and community service to continental and international UU arenas over the years, the Rev. Mr. Hopper earned wide and beloved praise as a “minister to ministers.” He was long a dedicated supporter of the International Association for Religious Freedom. He served terms as a UUA trustee and as president of the continental UUMA, and was instrumental in conceiving and setting up the UUMA’s CENTER program (Continuing Education Network for Training, Enrichment, and Renewal).
Unable to attend the pivotal Selma march, Mr. Hopper later spent two weeks in Selma living with a young black Presbyterian minister, working on voting rights and registration, participating in rallies, and allying himself with other movement ministers and leaders.
In local community service during his parish settlements, Leon helped establish the human service agency, Jeffco Support Inc. (now the Action Center) in Jefferson County CO. Later, in the Seattle area, he served as board member and president for the East King Council of Health and Human Services, president of Eastside Human Services Council, board member of Eastside Domestic Violence Program, and board member of the Center for Prevention of Sexual and Domestic Violence (now King County Sexual Assault Resource Center).
For his extensive and tireless devotion to these and other causes, the Rev. Mr. Hopper received two honorary doctorates: a 1981 D.D. from Meadville Lombard and a 1993 S.T.D. from Starr King School.
Charles Leon Hopper, Jr., was born on February 21, 1927 to Charles Leon and Ethol [sic] Peterson Hopper. During his teen years as a Boy Scout, Leon developed a love of the outdoors, and his introverted character was nurtured by the solitude and immersion in nature that he found working as a fire lookout in the Cascade Range. After graduation from Seattle’s Roosevelt High School and 18 months of service in the Navy, he returned to the Pacific Northwest for undergraduate study.
While there, he attended Seattle’s University Unitarian Church and participated in the Channing Club youth group, where he met his future wife, Dorothy, and first heard a call to the ministry. In 1951, he received his B.A. from the University of Washington, he and Dorothy were married, and they headed off for Leon’s ministerial study at Harvard Divinity School, where he completed his S.T.B. in 1954.
Mr. Hopper’s parish service began in 1953, while still a seminarian, at the First Congregational Parish, Unitarian, of Petersham MA, where he was ordained the next year. He moved to Boston in 1957 to become Executive Director for the newly formed Liberal Religious Youth (LRY).
Drawn back to the parish, he accepted a call to the Jefferson Unitarian Church of Golden CO, serving there for the 13 years (1963–76). Some years later the congregation named their sanctuary in honor of his service there. Returning to Boston in 1976, the Rev. Mr. Hopper took an appointment as the UUA’s first Ministerial Education Director, a role he held for five years. In 1981, he accepted a call to East Shore Unitarian Church of Bellevue WA, and spent 11 years there before retiring from parish ministry in 1992 as their Minister Emeritus.
Leon was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2002, and the next year he and Dorothy moved into Horizon House Retirement Community in Seattle, where tiered care would be available when needed. Never one to take illness as an excuse for idleness, Leon served at Horizon House on the Residents’ Council, chaired its Committee on Committees, and co-chaired the Hospitality and Opera Committees with Dorothy.
With mobility becoming more severely limited, Leon stayed connected with colleagues, friends, family, and the wider world through letters, emails, and visitors. He cherished friends who came regularly to read to him and help with email correspondence.
Leon was held in high esteem worldwide for his sincere collegiality, gentle honesty, and infectious optimism, which sustained many colleagues through difficult times both in their ministries and personal lives. He was truly surprised to learn of the far-reaching effect he had on people’s lives. In hearing letters of his profoundly positive impact, he would shake his head in humbled amazement, saying, “I never imagined.”
Leon is survived by his wife of 65 years, Dorothy; daughters, Sheridan Botts and Rachel Tucker; son, Chuck Hopper; and five grandchildren. His life was honored and memorialized on July 26, 2016, at the East Shore Unitarian Church in Bellevue WA, in a service co-led by his colleagues, the Rev. Barbara ten Hove and the Rev. Elaine Peresluha.
Notes of condolences may be sent to Dorothy Hopper, 900 University Street, Horizon House, 4C, Seattle WA 98101, or to clhopperjr@aol.com.