HOPWOOD, ERIE C.

HOPWOOD, ERIE C. (7 Feb. 1872-18 Mar. 1928), one of the PLAIN DEALER's most honored editors, was born in N. Eaton, Lorain County, Ohio, to Henry Clay and Emily Clarinda (Cook) Hopwood. He grew up in Ashtabula County and attended Western Reserve University (see CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY) from 1897-1901. After teaching a year in Middletown, Ohio, Hopwood returned to Cleveland as police reporter for the Plain Dealer. By 1907 he had worked his way up through assistant city editor and city editor to night editor, in 1912 becoming managing editor with editorial control of the paper. When ELBERT H. BAKER retired as general manager in 1920, the title of editor was revived for Hopwood. Under the slogan "Justice in the news columns," he continued Baker's policy of unbiased news reporting. While confining himself largely to administrative duties, Hopwood continued to report on such occasions as a postwar tour of France and Belgium and the marathon 1924 Democratic Natl. Convention. Hopwood was a founder of the American Society of Newspaper Editors in 1922, helped draft its idealistic "Canons of journalism," adopted the following year, was the society's secretary and had been its president for 3 years prior to his death. He was also a founding member of the CITY CLUB and was its third president, 1914-15. Married to Ida Walter in 1903, Hopwood had 2 daughters, Eleanor and Marion, and a son, Henry. He died at his home in SHAKER HTS., where he practiced his prize-winning hobby of amateur photography. Hopwood was buried in LAKE VIEW CEMETERY.