Memorial planned for Chapter Director
The chapter is saddened to share that our Chapter Director Jon Hopwood passed away at his home in Yakima.
Montana Memorial
The memorial service in Butte, with interment to follow, will be held at Wayrynen Richards Funeral Home, 1800 Florence Ave., Butte, Montana, (406-723-3221) on April 16, 2011.
Yakima Memorial
The memorial service in Yakima will be on Saturday, April 30 at 2:00 pm at Yakima Children’s Village, 3801 Kern Road, Yakima, WA 98902, (509-574-3200). To give us an idea of how many people will attend, please RSVP to kathy.nock@kdfarchitecture.com or call 509-575-5408.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorials go to a project dear to Jon, the Children’s Village. www.yakimachildrensvillage.org
Obituary
Below is wonderful obitutary written by his employer, KDF Architecture:
Jon Hopwood worked with us at KDF Architecture for 24 years (He started January 1987). He had many redeeming qualities that we admired and marveled at. If there was a need to recall a contact or detail on a project, stopping by Jon’s desk would usually reveal the answer. Even on more obscure fields of knowledge, Jon was always a good bet for the answer.
Jon was faithful to KDF in many ways; one charming expression of this was putting a KDF logo decal on all of his vehicles and motorcycle. He totally wore out several KDF navy blue tee shirts before their time.
Jon had strong opinions and a tender heart. Two projects he was particularly sensitive about were the Children’s Village (a healthcare facility for children with severe disabilities) and the North Star Lodge Cancer Center. In 1998, Jon traveled to Anchorage, Alaska for the Annual Northwest & Pacific Region American Institute of Architects conference. While there, he proudly accepted the Honor Award in architecture for Children’s Village. His other projects include the new Coulee Medical Center, multiple projects for Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital, many clinics for Columbia Basin Health Association, as well as a number of schools in Yakima.
There are hundreds of clients Jon served with the same faithfulness and diligence that he demonstrated for KDF. His continuing education and knowledge of details, specifications, and procedures of how to put a building together was crucial in developing our KDF systems and standards as well as critical to the success of his projects.
Jon was the AIA Washington State Council 2010 President, a member for over 17 years, and served on the Board for the past seven. In addition to his AIA involvement, he was active at the local level, serving on the City of Yakima’s Community Review Board for Code Enforcement since its inception in 1999 and serving as chair since 2006. He was a member of Monitor Lodge #35 AF & AM in Butte, a member of the Butte-Silver Bow Good Sam’s, and Director of Chapter “Y” of the Gold Wing Touring Association in Sunnyside, WA.
We are now feeling a loss that is hard to comprehend or accept. In tribute to Jon’s worn cowboy boots and his challenging red-blooded American heart, we’ll remember this honorable man as old country lyrics: Big Jon, we sure will miss you a bunch.