Esther A. Hopkins

Esther Arvilla Hopkins (née Harrison; September 18, 1926 – May 19, 2021) was an American chemist, environmental attorney and politician. Hopkins was best known for her career as a biophysicist and research chemist at American Cyanamid along with research in the Polaroid Corp Emulsion Coating and Analysis Laboratory, becoming a Fellow of the American Chemical Society in 2011. She also pursued a career working as an attorney with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), then becoming the first African-American woman elected to office in Framingham, Massachusetts. Esther Harrison was born in 1926 and along with two brothers, one older and one younger. The Harrison family battled poverty, but Esther spent most of her time at the public library and the Stamford theater. Her parents also provided her with piano lessons even when facing financial adversity. Throughout middle and high school, Esther played the piano at her church and was president of the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA). She was offered a position to work with the New England Institute for Medical Research in 1955, where she was an assistant researcher in biophysics until 1959. In 2011, she became a fellow of the American Chemical Society for her work at the Polaroid Corporation.

Personal life Esther married John Mitchell in 1955, who was pursuing a doctorate at Boston University when they met. They had a daughter named Susan who died in early adulthood due to diabetes complications. The marriage ended a few years later. Esther moved back to Stamford in 1959, where she met and married Rev. Thomas Ewell Hopkins in 1959, a local minister and social worker. Together they had one son, T. Ewell Hopkins Jr. Esther was married to T. Ewell for 42 years before his death in 2001.

Awards and honors 1967 Yale University Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi honor societies