Raymond Frederick Hopkins, teacher, author, global food policy expert, and loving husband, father and grandfather passed away peacefully at age 84 on May 23, 2023 from an infection amid a continuing battle with congestive heart failure. Always with a twinkle in his eye, a joke on his lips and a crazy scheme in mind, he was expressive in all he accomplished. Finding paths to end world hunger was a lifelong pursuit.

Ray was born on February 15, 1939 in East Cleveland, Ohio, the only child of Ada Elizabeth Cornwall and William Hopkins. The family soon moved to Columbus where Ray excelled academically but struggled emotionally as he saw his parents' difficult marriage end in divorce.  This formative experience led him to spending his life searching for nurturing institutions, love and fellowship with others, with a career filled with meaning and service.  After receiving his B.A. in Philosophy from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1960, he enrolled at the Yale Divinity School to pursue Christian ministry, working briefly as an associate pastor in New Haven.

In 1962, he married Carol Robinson, a fellow student at Ohio Wesleyan, and began to study political science, receiving a master's degree from Ohio State in 1963 followed b a Ph.D. from Yale in 1968. His dissertation explored questions of legitimacy and institution building in the formation of new governments emerging in post-Colonial Africa, work that was highly regarded at the time but also enjoyed a revival of interest after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the emergence of newly independent former Soviet-bloc countries.

Ray and Carol moved to Swarthmore in 1967, for what would become a 40-year career in the Swarthmore College political science department. During that time Ray's interests pivoted towards teaching and policy work, and expanded from African politics to international food policy and how institutions can be built to address multilateral collective action problems.  Ray served as chair of the department twice, founded and directed a public policy and internship program, testified before Congress on four occasions and often consulted with major international organizations such as the World Food Program, the UN, USAID, CARE, the State Department, and the World Bank. He was the author or co-author of six books and over fifty articles, and was a visiting Professor at Columbia, Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania, and held faculty research appointments at Harvard University, Stanford University and the Universities of Indiana, Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.

Ray donated a great deal of time and resources to social justice. After years of research trips to many developing countries, Ray founded and served as president of the International Service Community (ISC), a non-profit organization that arranged for groups of late-career professionals to go abroad to do volunteer work. Locally, he volunteered at the Chester Charter School where he read to Kindergartners on a weekly basis. His empathy and concern with the disadvantaged led him to be a life-long, committed Democrat, and he served two terms as President of the Swarthmore Democratic Committee. He continued to be active in Delaware County politics after he and Carol moved to White Horse Village, a CCRC north of Swarthmore, representing Edgcomb on the Mid-County Democratic Committee and organizing volunteers for elections.

From his youth working as a taxi driver in Put-in-Bay, Ohio to his sabbaticals in Italy, Tanzania and Kenya, to many summers spent in Boothbay Harbor, ME, Ray was always seeking out new opportunities to sail.  In Maine, he served as President of the Sprucewold Beach Club and started an annual "Cabbage Island Swim" across the bay where he loved to sail. Among his proudest achievements were climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in his 50's and sailing across the Atlantic in his 70's.

Ray is survived by his wife Carol, son Mark, daughter Kathryn (Stuart Snydman), and four grandchildren: Nicolas and Alexander Hopkins, and Theodore and Aria Snydman.

There will be a memorial service for Ray at Swarthmore Presbyterian Church at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday August 26, followed by a reception at the church. The service will be livestreamed for those who would like to join but cannot travel. Please visit the following link to livestream the service: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xY4F67FoITs

In lieu of flowers, donations in his name may be made to the Hopkins International Public Policy Internship or the Chester Children's Chorus (both c/o Swarthmore College, Attn: Gift Records, 500 College Ave. Swarthmore, Pa. 19081), or the World Food Programme ( www.wfpusa.org ).

The following is a link to the obituary that appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer in June. www.inquirer.com/obituaries/raymond-hopkins

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Arrangements: Rigby Harting & Hagan Funeral Home
www.haganfuneralhome.com