DOCTOR HOPKINS, THE MAN 



By EUGENE DAVENPOKT 



Dean of the College of Agriculture and Director of the Agricultural 



Experiment Station, University of Illinois 



A GREAT character has gone from among us. I can hardly 

 reconcile myself to the loss of him. It seems quite im- 

 possible. He is away upon a journey and some day will come 

 into my office again with his accustomed smile and hearty 

 greeting and we shall fall again to discussing ways and means 

 of insuring for all time the producing power of Illinois soils. 

 It is only my reason that corrects my vision of his coming. 



Others have spoken of the work of Doctor Hopkins and 

 of what it has meant and will mean to the state and to the 

 world. It is therefore my present purpose to speak of the 

 man, rather than of what he accomplished — of his methods of 

 work, his ideals, his visions, and his peculiar personal quali- 

 ties that stood as a background to give supreme value to all 

 that he did. It is important, I take it, that this rich mine of 

 human excellence should not be left untouched until those who 

 knew him intimately have themselves passed to their reward 

 and it shall be too late. It shall therefore be a duty as well 

 as a labor of love to set down as impartially as I am able the 

 leading personal qualities of this great man as they appeared 

 to me who lived in almost daily contact with him for nearly 

 a quarter of a century. 



HIS METHODS OF THOUGHT AND WOEK 



Doctor Hopkins' methods of work proceeded from his 

 methods of thought, for nothing was artificial with him. He 

 did nothing for effect. His only object was "truth" and in 

 its quest neither time nor labor counted in the balance. 



He was born as well as trained a chemist ; that is to say, 

 his habits and methods of thought were analytical. Yet was 



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