December 14, 2009

Graveside remembrance of Mr. Hopkins to be held Dec. 24

All members of the Johns Hopkins community are invited to the annual graveside observance honoring the institutions’ founder.

The brief, informal ceremony will take place at Johns Hopkins’ grave in Green Mount Cemetery at 10 a.m. on Thursday, Dec. 24, the 136th anniversary of his death.

Mr. Hopkins left $7 million in his will, at that time the largest philanthropic bequest in U.S. history, to establish a university and hospital in Baltimore that have evolved into the worldwide Johns Hopkins Institutions we know today.

The ceremony is arranged by university Vice President and Secretary Emeritus Ross Jones. This year’s speaker, Professor Emeritus Matthew Crenson of the Department of Political Science, will offer observations on the Baltimore of Mr. Hopkins’ time.

To reach the gravesite, enter the cemetery at the main gate along Greenmount Avenue, about five blocks south of North Avenue; drive straight up the hill and park near the crest.

To read Mr. Hopkins’ obituary from the Dec. 25, 1873, edition of The Baltimore Sun, go to www.jhu.edu/125th/links/obit.html.