HOPKINS, Dr. Denis Howie Galbraith With great sadness, the family of Dr. Denis Hopkins MD, FRCP(C) announce his death on October 12, 2017 at his home near Orton Ontario. Denis was born in Aberdeen, Scotland. He studied medicine at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical School in London, England. He married Hilda Woolnough (1934-2007) and the couple had three children. The family came to Canada in 1957 where Denis began a general medical practice in Hamilton, Ontario. He later completed his studies in psychiatry at the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, now known as the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. Denis was a respected psychiatrist at the Homewood Health Centre in Guelph, Ontario from 1975 to 1995. He also served on Ontario’s Consent and Capacity Review Board. He was known as an excellent clinician who was keenly interested in helping seriously mentally ill persons. Even after some twenty years of retirement, he continued to receive telephone calls and letters from former patients who thanked him for the help he had given. During his career, he held positions of Unit Director and Medical Director at the Homewood Health Centre. Following retirement, Denis pursued his lifelong interest in art, studying for seven years at the Albert Defois School of Realist Painting in the Loire Valley, France, under the guidance of master painter, Ted Seth Jacobs. He continued to paint for the rest of his life, constantly honing his skills in landscape and still life. He was a passionate and prolific artist who worked tirelessly to find ways to use colour and shadow on his meticulously thought out canvasses. He was a member of the Colour and Form Society as well as of Headwaters Arts, the Wellington Artists’ Gallery and the Elora Arts Centre. His beautiful work has been exhibited and sold in Canada, the US and France. Denis was a true gentleman, thoughtful, considerate and respectful of all persons. He will be much missed by those who knew him and felt his genuine kindness. He is survived by his wife, Noreen, his sister Halimah Van der Matten, a daughter, Lee Wiencki and by two sons, Daniel and John Hopkins. He is also survived by four grandchildren, Christopher and Simon Wiencki, Erin Mills, and Svetlana Svirejeva- Hopkins and by five great grandchildren. Predeceased by Noreen’s daughter, Patricia Toye, he is survived by Noreen’s son, David Toye, and by two grandsons, Gavin Schofield and Ben Toye. He is remembered fondly by the art community in Elora and Alton and by his country neighbours. Cremation has taken place. In lieu of a formal Memorial Service, Denis’s life is being celebrated in small gatherings of family members, friends, and fellow artists. Noreen welcomes visits from all who wish to visit at Denis’s studio and to reflect on the time they spent with Denis. Donations in his memory may be made to Groves Hospital Foundation, Fergus.
