Joyce DeVingo Hopkins

Following graduation from SUNY, New Paltz in 1960 I taught my way across the country starting in Peekskill, NY and finally landing in San Francisco in 1964. My first California teaching job was in Marin County, s suburb north of San Francisco comparable to Mount Vernon’s proximity to NYC. It was there that I met and married my husband, Barry, also a teacher. In 1971 we moved to Santa Cruz County (central CA coastal area) where my husband had an elementary principalship and I attempted to keep up with a son and daughter who are now 36 and 34 respectively. During those ten years of car pooling kids I learned to play tennis and attended aerobics classes (California lifestyle) while maintaining my interest in classical music and theater (NY and family influences). Desiring to return to the classroom I obtained a Master’s in Special Education from University of San Francisco in 1982 and began teaching high school special education in a local district. I semi-retired in 1997 and completely retired two years ago. As a family we experienced two wonderful home exchanges in England and Germany and several trips to Hawaii. We have also traded out time share in Palm Springs in order to see other new and exciting areas of our country and even Tuscany. Maintaining contact with family and friends on the east coast and vise versa has been very important! In October 1989 when Northern California was badly shaken by the Loma Prieta earthquake, we lost electricity, water, gas, phone and most contact with the outside world for several days. We were not aware that our little city of Aptos was actually the epicenter of this destructive quake until an AB Davis friend from Florida was able to get through to tell us the news!!! For the past three years I have been a care giver for my ailing husband but I still find time to get together with family and friends, play bridge, go to the gym and even squeeze in a little traveling—but much closer to home now.