Erwin Hopt joined the College of Agriculture faculty in 1909 serving as professor of agronomy from 1909 to 1918. After leaving the University of Nebraska, Mr. Hopt joined the appraisal staff of the Lincoln Joint Stock Land Bank. Mr. Hopt’s carefully applied methods established himself as a thorough land appraiser. After World War I, when land and commodities were booming in price, Mr. Hopt pleaded for conservatism as he knew land prices were too high. Unfortunately, later events proved he was remarkably correct.
Erwin Hopt was born at Hamburg, Iowa, January 17, 1876, and died at his home in Lincoln, Nebraska, September 8, 1938. His father came to the United States from Germany just prior to the Civil War and enlisted and served as a soldier in the Union army. His mother was Albina Schnirl. His father homesteaded in Kimball County, Nebraska, in 1887. The family lived there until 1890 when they moved to Bartley, Nebraska. In 1896 they moved on to a farm in the Republican River Valley between Bartley and Cambridge. Erwin and his brother Otto when only boys made a trip from Kimball, Nebraska to Hamburg, Iowa on horseback and later on that same summer returned to Kimball with a herd of cattle. His experience in Kimball county as well as along the Republican River gave him a clear conception of the pioneer life in western Nebraska and an understanding of the hazards of drought and dry farming in general that were useful to him throughout his entire life. Erwin graduated from the Bartley schools which then had only 11 grades, in 1894. He taught a country school near Danbury in 1894-95. In 1896 he graduated from the McCook high school. During the next three years he taught a partial term of school in the country and then completed the year and the following two in the McCook schools. He later entered the Nebraska School of Agriculture at Lincoln. He continued his studies at the Nebraska College of Agriculture and received his Bachelor’s degree in 1909. He was a thorough student with a questioning mind. In fact, he was rather skeptical of all precepts that did not have an evident foundation in fact. In college he was a member of the honorary scientific society of Sigma Xi and the honorary agricultural fraternity of Alpha Zeta.
On July 25, 1905, Mr. Hopt was married to Eva S. Burner. To them were born three children: Helen Ruth, now Mrs. Evan Kleven; Erma Eveline, now Mrs. Marvin Brokaw; and Carl Erwin.
The summer and fall of 1909 were spent at the experiment station at North Platte, Nebraska. During the winter term of this same year Mr. Hopt was called to Lincoln to join the faculty of the College of Agriculture. He served as assistant and professor of agronomy from 1909 to 1918. From 1918 to 1921 he farmed the old home farm near Bartley ad about this time purchased the farm.
In 1921 Mr. Hopt was called to join the appraisal staff of the Lincoln Joint Stock Land Band. He remained in this service until his death. Here again Mr. Hopt applied his careful methods and established himself as one of the most thorough and valuable land appraisers of the middlewest. On numerous occasions the federal government procured him for special services.
Four characteristics of this man stand out in the memory of those with whom he was most closely associated. As a teacher and student councilor he had few equals. In a letter from P.H. Stewart, one of his students and now with the Federal Land Bank of Omaha, to Mrs. Hopt, I quote the following: “I have always felt that I owed ‘Prof.’ a heavy debt for the many things he did for me as a student and assistant in the department. Much of what little I have been able to do has been due, to a great extent, to his counsel, teaching, philosophy, and advice. I can honestly say that his ideas were an inspiration to me in school and a splendid guide since graduation. I rank him as my outstanding teacher in the university.” Bryan French, a student and colleague in appraisal work writes, “He was the best and truest friend I ever had.” These quotations are typical of many that could be given.
Erwin Hopt was not only a thorough, logical teacher of farm crops. He had a knack of gaining the confidence of his students so that he could talk to them about their personal problems, and thus his influence extended far beyond the classroom. Mr. Hopt’s office door was never closed. Students were always welcome at any hour of the day or night. If he had a lecture to prepare or any other administrative duty to perform, these duties had to wait until all student wants and needs were taken care of. This practice caused him to spend many hours of midnight oil but it showed his unusual love for students. He possessed an analytical mind and could classify students into categories from which he could choose those fitted for the many different lines of agricultural service. It did not take him long to size up a class of 30 or 40 boys. He quickly recognized ability, cooperativeness, personality, hard work, and character. Honesty and common sense were two requirements that every student must have if he wanted to be listed in the archives of the Hopt file of worthy men. Probably no better organized crops laboratory existed anywhere than the one he left to his successor when he resigned from the faculty in 1918.
Erwin Hopt was an individualist. He was considerate of the ideas of others but when he once made up his mind it took the rarest kind of proof to cause him to change his views. Rather than waiver the slightest from the course he had chosen he would willingly die a martyr to that cause. When the world war broke out and the United States adopted the slogan of making the world safe for democracy, Mr. Hopt was not carried away, but had the great foresight to see the futility of such an undertaking. He said over and over again the United States has nothing to gain and everything to lose. Today many see the value of his wise counsel. Those of us who knew Erwin Hopt intimately know that he was a real patriot. He disliked, yes almost hated war. To him it was entirely futile of accomplishment, but he gave most generously to the Red Cross. In fact, his support to the humanitarian side of the war was greater than many of the so-called patriots who confined their giving largely to the purchase of interest bearing liberty bonds. Mr. Hopt did not buy any liberty bonds because this money was used largely for the destructive side of war. This individualism or better honesty of his convictions caused him some distress but in the long run proved him to be a man of purpose and real vision.
Erwin Hopt was a clear thinker and had rare ability to interpret the future. Sometimes it appears that he should have been an economist or sociologist rather than a crops teacher. Few men have the ability, vision and analytical power that this man exhibited on numerous occasions. His forecast of the results of the world war was a splendid example. All during the time when land and commodities were booming in price after the war closed, Mr. Hopt, time after time, pleaded for conservatism. He knew well that land was too high and that it would come down. Some called him a pessimist because he offered these words of caution, but later events showed he was remarkably correct. In an address before the Nebraska Mortgage Bankers at Norfolk on May 27, 1930, he said:
“As to the future that is anybody’s guess. Powerful, new, and as yet unforeseen, factors may make profound changes for the better. The future is in the lap of the gods. I can only make a guess as anyone else would make his. Yet all of us, in his own business matters, if nothing else, must either publicly or privately make his guess. My own guess is not optimistic. I hope that I am wrong in it - for if I am right, I, in common with most people in “farmdom”, have no flower-strewn path ahead of us. However, our hopes, our personal interests, will have little effect on the course of events. Regardless of ballyhoo, in spite of made-to-order optimism, it looks to me, in view of the things I have pointed to, as if the agricultural depression would get worse before it gets better. It seems to me that agriculture is likely to stay in the dumps at least twenty years longer and possibly much longer.”
This address was criticized severely. Many of the critics of that address have since confessed that if they had only listened to Hopt’s wise counsel they would have been spared many terrific headaches and financial losses.
Erwin Hopt was a man in the truest sense of the word. He loved his family above everything else. He was absolutely unselfish and always thought of the welfare of his fellow men. Back of his rugged western individualism he had a heart that was most kind. He loved the farm, the land, the animals, and above all the folks associated with the land. He was a tireless worker. In the passing of the man, Nebraska Agriculture lost one of its most able thinkers and many of us lost a wise counselor and a dear friend.
Address given December 13, 1939.
