John Hopkins

John (Howard) Hopkins passed away peacefully on January 9th, 2026 in his home following a courageous battle with dementia. Howard was born in Santa Paula, California on March 28th, 1940 and has lived in Powell since 1983.

After attending high school in Santa Paula, CA he joined the Army and served 6 months receiving an honorable discharge and released to the US Army Reserve to complete his remaining obligation. Shortly after his discharge Howard married his High School sweetheart, Carol, in 1959 beginning a devoted partnership that spanned 67 years. He went to work in the oil business starting with Oil Well Cementing in Taft, California in 1960. He worked his way to Field Salesman and had a territory of Southern California. Dow Chemical bought the company and shortly after Howard was promoted to Station Manager and moved to southern California to run operations for that area.

While on a trip to Santa Maria in 1971, Howard and a co-worker noticed the Desert Aire Rest Home was on fire, and were able to save lives. The newspaper article quoted him saying “…the smoke was really thick and I couldn’t breathe and ran back outside….so I took a deep breath and ran back in and saw a woman stumbling around and grabbed her…”. His act of heroism was later recognized by the Assembly California Legislature.

In 1973, Howard, Carol and their three kids began a near 9-year stint overseas working for Dowell Schlumberger as an engineer. They started in Venezuela where he operated a cement and frack barge on Lake Maracaibo. In 1976 they moved to Iran living in Tehran and Ahvaz where he worked both offshore and onshore rigs. They then moved to the Far East to both Jakarta, Indonesia and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In 1979 he was hired by BJ Hughes which moved him and family to Aberdeen, Scotland and then London, England where he did sales work covering Europe and North Africa. In 1981 he returned to Dowell Schlumberger and they moved to Evanston, Wy and a few years later moved to Powell, Wy with Petrolog wireline services. A few years later Howard retired from the oil and gas business and started up Hopkins Life and Safety providing medical supplies to many businesses in surrounding area. He closed down the business in 2021.

Howard was known to be a prankster/jokester and his targets were usually his friends or family. He was an avid fisherman frequently pulling out trout from the Shoshone river. He was also a sports car enthusiast and over the years owned an AMC Javelin, Ford Mustang and Buick Grand National. He always made time to help friends and neighbors and every Friday enjoyed meeting for coffee and telling tall tales with his best buddies.

Howard is survived by his devoted wife, Carol, daughters Terri (Ken) and Traci (Terry) who both reside in Arizona, and his son Tim (Connie) of Cody. He has 5 grandchildren; Camille, Christopher, Carol, Terrin, and Casey, and 12 great grandchildren. In lieu of a memorial service, the family will gather for a celebration of life sometime in the summer of 2026. For all of his friends, customers and fellow church members, the family wishes to thank you for your love and support over the years.