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S1c Homer David Hopkins
Homer David Hopkins played baseball at Muskegon High School near Lake Michigan 35 miles west-northwest of Grand Rapids, Michigan. The 1940 yearbook described him as “always good natured.”
He graduated that spring and enlisted in the Navy in September. He was a seaman first class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.
Mr. Hopkins was born Feb. 25, 1921 to David Hopkins, a farmer, and Alma Long Hopkins, a homemaker. Sometime in the 1930s the family moved 100 miles south from Garfield to Muskegon, where the father went to work as a machinist at a piston-ring factory.
The U.S.S. Muskegon, a patrol frigate, was built for the Navy in 1943 and launched in Superior, Wisconsin. Mr. Hopkin’s mother christened the ship.
His older brother, Robert, served in the Army in World War II.
Sources: The Escanaba (Michigan) Daily Press; the Muskegon (Michigan) Chronicle; Census; Navy muster roll; grave marker; Muskegon high yearbooks. The photo is from the 1940 yearbook. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.