Written by the Director

Written by the Director: Tom S. Hopkins - Nobody Cared More!

Dr. Tom Hopkins has announced his retirement from active service to the University of Alabama and secondarily, the Dauphin Island Sea Lab. In the late ‘70s the Dauphin Island Sea Lab was experiencing very serious difficulties as the consortium was beginning to take shape. The early years were almost totally dependent on the remnants of the University of Alabama’s Marine Science Institute and the minuscule appropriation of $100K annually! Tom Hopkins brought Minerals Management Service funding, graduate students, and tons of equipment to the embryonic laboratory that had almost nothing.

But his impact on the Dauphin Island Sea Lab really began an incredible 38 years

ago when he recruited me as a graduating senior from Loyola University in New Orleans to study with him at Scripps Institute of Oceanography in San Diego, California. His concern for me as a student has been mirrored in hundreds, even thousands, of students throughout his career as professor, department chairman (University of West Florida), Senior Marine Scientist (DISL), and even now as Professor Emeritus at the University of Alabama.

No one ever sincerely cared more for his students than Tom Hopkins did. I’m proud to have been one of them!

Tom came from a Marine family and left his first career as the youngest Drill Instructor in the history of the Marine Corps to return to college. Obviously, in typical fashion, he finished a four-year course of study in three years and wound up at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. After finishing his Ph.D. at SIO he left to help build New College in Florida but was quickly recruited to build the Department of Biology at the brand new University of West Florida as Chair. But his zest for research in the Gulf of Mexico outweighed his waning enthusiasm for

Dr. George Crozier (l) presents Dr. Tom Hopkins (r) with a plaque commemorating his 25 years of distinguished service. Dr. Hopkins taught Marine Invertebrate Zoology for many years at the Sea Lab; the plaque quotes John Steinbeck’s The Log from the Sea of Cortez - "It is advisable to look from the tide pool to the stars and then back to the tide pool again."

administration and he accepted my offer to bring his "Gulf Research Underwater Naturalist Team" to the Sea Lab. I had little to offer him beyond enormous freedom to develop his methodologies in benthic research and invertebrate taxonomy.

His interests turned slightly north in the 1980’s and his group carried out the first quantitative examination of the benthic communities of Mobile Bay. This was also a landmark effort in estuarine science and we are still using the data to better understand biological processes in Mobile Bay. These efforts underpin much of our background knowledge of Coastal Zone Management principles, the National Estuary Program, and the State Natural Heritage Program.

As a recruit entering the U.S. Marine Corps, Tom was so nervous that he shouted his name to the DI as "Thomas Hopkins, Sir!" and this was perpetuated for the rest of his life as Tom "S" Hopkins. This was clearly the last time that he was ever afraid of anything. I happen to know that his middle initial is S, and what it stands for, but I’ll never tell. That will have to be part of his legacy that’s mine alone. But I’m not alone, because Tom also brought Mike Dardeau and John Valentine to the Lab – both are now pillars of our organization. At different times, Tom has been our mentor, tyrant, colleague, confidante, friend, Rasputin, broker, and always, our champion! He is neither gone nor forgotten and will always be a part of this Laboratory.

Dr. George F. Crozier

Executive Director

Dauphin Island Sea Lab