Greenwood Friends School

Friends and acquaintances paid tribute to Dr. Mary Linley Hopkins during a memorial service at the Millville Friends Meetinghouse on May 13, 2007. Dr. Hopkins, longtime friend of Greenwood Friends School and member of the board of trustees since 1983, died in Bloomsburg Hospital May 2, 2007, at the age of 94.

Dr. Hopkins was a retired professor of nursing who had also served 13 years on the school nursing staff of Southern Columbia school district. She had been a resident of Bloomsburg's Balanced Care nursing home for several years, since being incapacitated by a stroke. Yet she managed to be present at many GFS functions and was a regular attender of board meetings. In 2004, she was honored at the dedication of the school's Mary Linley Hopkins Library. She was a member of the Millville Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends.

Well-wishers greet Dr. Hopkins at the dedication of the school library in 2004.

Dr. Mary Linley Hopkins died peacefully in her sleep at 10:30 a.m. on May 2, 2007, in the Bloomsburg Hospital. Dr. Hopkins had been a resident of Balanced Care of Bloomsburg since January 2001, following a stroke. Prior to moving to Balanced Care, she had lived at 102 Market Street, in a house of historic importance in Bloomsburg, which she purchased in 1959. She lived previously in New York City and in New Jersey, where she worked and taught.

Dr. Hopkins was born on May 13, 1912, in Detroit, Michigan, the daughter of the late Teresa and Frederick Linley.

Dr. Hopkins was a 1930 graduate of the Grosse Ile High School, Grosse Ile, Michigan, an island in the Detroit River where she spent her childhood. She continued her education at St. Mary's Hospital Training School in Detroit, where she earned an R.N., and at Columbia University, where she received a B.S. in 1959, an M.A. in 1961, and an Ed.D in nursing education in 1976.

Her professional life included serving as a nurse at New York Hospital, as a private duty nurse, and as a nurse at Metropolitan Life Insurance in New York City. In 1946 she moved to a farm in Greenwood Township, Columbia County, with her husband Stephen Hopkins, from whom she was divorced in 1954. She began her career in school nursing in 1955 with what is now the Southern Columbia School District, where she started a school health program, one of four in the county. She was the first person hired by the school district to work cooperatively with two schools. She initiated dental and physical exams for all students and promoted family doctor and dentist exams with reports to the school districts.

Dr. Hopkins began to pursue a bachelor's degree in nursing in the summer of 1956. From 1961 until 1972 she was an instructor in the school nursing program at Bloomsburg State Teachers College. In 1972 she joined Fairleigh-Dickinson University's College of Education in Rutherford, NJ, as an instructor in school nursing and health education. After receiving her doctorate, she became an Associate Professor of Nursing at Rutgers University, receiving tenure in 1977. She retired from teaching in 1982 and returned to live full time in her Market Street home.

Dr. Hopkins was an active member of professional organizations including the American School Health Association, the American Nurses Association, the National League for Nursing, the American Public Health Association, nursing honor society Sigma Theta Tau, and education honor societies Pi Lambda Theta and Kappa Delta Pi. Locally she served as the chair of the steering committee in 1976 that organized the home health agency that became Columbia-Montour Home Health Services and returned as a board member in 1982. She was a member of the Millville Garden Club, a charter member of the Utopian Club of Millville, and the Columbia County Democratic Women's Caucus. She was a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and served as treasurer of Millville Friends Meeting for 13 years and as a member of the Board of Trustees of Greenwood Friends School near Millville. In recognition of her many contributions to Greenwood Friends School, the library in the recently opened addition to the school was dedicated in her honor as the Mary Linley Hopkins Library.

Dr. Hopkins was named an Outstanding Woman in 1988 by the Columbia-Montour Women's Conference.

Dr. Hopkins is survived by a sister, Lenore Barnsdale of Newport, MI, a brother, William Linley of Grosse Ile, MI, a sister-in-law, Jeanne Linley of Fort Lauderdale, FL, seven nephews, and four nieces.

Burial took place at Michigan Memorial Park in Flat Rock, Michigan. A meeting for worship in memory of Dr. Hopkins was held at the Millville Friends Meetinghouse on May 13, 2007.

Dr. Hopkins requested that those wishing to make contributions in her name send them to Greenwood Friends School, P.O. Box 438, Millville, PA 17846.