WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. - Dr. Edwin Hostetter Hopton of Williamstown, Mass., died on Sunday, December 15, 2019, at Berkshire Medical Center.

Born on May 9, 1930, in Lancaster, Pa., Ed was the son of the late Earl and Miriam (Hostetter) Hopton. A track star at McCaskey High School, Ed, resisting a strong push from his father to major in economics, switched his major to biology at Franklin and Marshall College and graduated in 1951. He studied medicine at Temple University Medical School, followed by a residency at The Geisinger Clinic in Pennsylvania.

Drafted into the service in 1957, Ed served two years as the chief medical officer abroad the US Cambria in the post-Korea U.S. Navy. Taking part in the peaceful U.S. landing in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1958, Ed considered his service one of the most fulfilling experiences of his life.

Prior to opening his private practice in internal medicine in the Doctors Building of North Adams Reginal Hospital in 1971, Ed practiced in Hershey, Pa., where he also taught at The Penn State College of Medicine. While in Hershey, Ed joined The Harrisburg Bicycle Club, furthering his involvement in a sport he had come to love in the early 1950s. Long after finally adjusting to the hills and narrow shoulders of Western Massachusetts with a return to cycling in the late 1970's, Ed always longed for his old rides through many miles of farmland in what was then an early hot bed of the still new sport of American road cycling. Ed made many cycling friends in Pennsylvania, a few of whom were true characters in the best sense of the word. Ed maintained periotic contact with these friends throughout the rest of his life. It was not that rare for Ed and his wife Janet to find a bedroom for a cycling old-timer who would typically arrive from hundreds of miles away with the lightest of essentials, and at a moment’s notice.

Ed was throughout his life a passionate audiophile. He pursued his quest for true high fidelity throughout his life. This hobby, and his love of reading, were regarded by Ed as forming the perfect complement to outdoor pursuits in meeting, as often as possible, the elusive goal of happy relaxation.

When Ed retired from medicine in 1996, the profession he truly loved had just started to change from the patient-centered art that it had been to the insurance driven world of hospitalists and impersonal hospital procedure that it is today. He felt strongly that these changes made for ethical dilemmas. He also felt that the worlds of medicine and business were by nature completely incompatible. Nonetheless, he loved the medical life so much that he would often say that he had retired to soon.

Dr. Hopton is survived by his wife, Dorothy Janet (Hinckley) Hopton, whom he married in 1961 and who joined him as his office manager in the last years of his practice; his four children, Dorothy Hopton of New York City, Charles Hopton of Williamstown, E. Spencer Hopton, his wife Lorma and their son Charles Hopton of Amherst, and Trevor Hopton of Bridgeport, Conn.; a brother, David Hopton; and sisters, Susan Gluck, and Maryellen Weaver.

Funeral notice: A funeral service for Dr. Hopton will take place on Friday, January 10, 2020, at 11 a.m. at St. John's Episcopal Church, 35 Park St., Williamstown, MA 01267. Burial will follow at Westlawn Cemetery.

Memorial donations may be made to The Paralyzed Veterans of The Iraq War, or The Perkins Library for The Blind, through The Flynn & Dagnoli Funeral Home, 74 Marshall St., North Adams, Ma 01247.To add to the Book of Memories, please visit www.flynndagnolifuneralhomes.com.