MEHopper / About / Trivia / Hoppers FAQ
Over the years I’ve gotten questions about my Hopper name.
Here is a short “FAQ” answering them.
Is Hopper your maiden name?
Are you related to Grace Murray Hopper?
Are you related to Edward Hopper?
Does art run in the Hopper family?
Did you inherit “art” — are you an artist?
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Yes.
I am from the Dutch line of Hoppers descended from Andries Willemszen (Hoppe) Hoppen (abt. 1627 – bef. 1658) who migrated from The Netherlands to the U.S. and settled in what was then New Netherland. Here are the books that I was given by my aunt describing the family line.
Here’s a link to a similar type of book available on Amazon.
The Hopper Family Genealogy; Descendants of Andries Willemszen Hoppe(N) (Maria Jean Pratt Hopper)
Here’s a link to a less polished version on the Web.
Here’s another link with a bit of information.
Andries Hoppen, Bergen County Families, GSBC Family Files
Every person with the last name of Hopper that I’ve come across over the years is from this line. We generally have a conversation about having some version of the books I have. Then we joke about being distant relatives, but none of us have ever bothered to figure out the description of the relationship. We generally stop after figuring out we’re not second cousins or something.
Are you related to Grace Murray Hopper?
When I was starting the NEW Computer Museum, I got this question a lot.
Yes, sort of, but tangentially through marriage. Murray was her maiden name.
“She married Vincent Foster Hopper in 1930 (a childless union that ended in divorce in 1946).” — Grace Murray Hopper Profile by Captain Rosario M. Rausa, U.S. Naval Reserve
I am related to her ex-husband Vincent Foster Hopper, though.
Even though we aren’t related by blood, I still have great respect for her!
Are you related to Edward Hopper?
Yes, and proudly so!
He was aware of being a descendent of Andries and the extensive Dutch heritage of his family in Nyack, New York where he grew up.
I also love his art, although I’m most fond of his beach scenes and sail boats which are more cheerful than his more famous paintings.
Here’s a fantastic quotation.
“All I ever wanted to do was to paint sunlight on the side of a house.” — Edward Hopper, Quoted from Sunlight on Brownstones, Wichita Art Museum
Does art run in the Hopper family?
My family told me that “art” runs in our family, and I believe it.
I was an only child, so I can’t speak about siblings, but my father was definitely an artist. Here is a picture of him when he served in the U. S. Army Air Forces during World War II.
He was stationed in Northern Africa during the war, and here’s a sketch of Gandhi that I was told he did in person on July 12, 1945.
After the war he studied art at the Herron School of Art and Design in Indianapolis.
Did you inherit “art” — are you an artist?
Yes. It was drilled into my head as a child that I was born into a family of artists, my father was an artist, and I would be an artist. It turned out to be true.
Here’s a self-portrait I did in grade school.
I started out as a dual English and Art major in college, and I took the core sequence of required Art classes plus photography. However, I later dropped out of the undergrad Art program after deciding to focus on Instructional Design in grad school. Back then, before computers, the field of Instructional Design was far more focused on practical design and production techniques than it is today.
The curriculums for the design courses in the undergrad Art program and the graduate Instructional Design program were very similar, and both programs included instruction in photography (complete with dark room experience). Essentially, I switched from focusing on general art and design to focusing on art and design applied in educational settings. Lately, I’ve gone back to doing a bit of art for the sake of art as well.
See my Art page …