Donald Jack Hopgood was born on 5 September 1938 and is a former South Australian politician who was the 5th Deputy Premier of South Australia from 1985 to 1992.
18 Facts About Don Hopgood
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Donald Jack Hopgood was born on born 5 September 1938 at Prospect, an inner northern suburb of Adelaide.
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Don Hopgood's maternal grandfather worked at Islington Railway Workshops, while his paternal grandfather was a retired typesetter.
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Don Hopgood grew up in Prospect and was a member of the Prospect North Methodist Church Sunday school.
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Don Hopgood went to Prospect Primary School and Adelaide Boys' High School.
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Don Hopgood then trained to be a teacher at Adelaide Teachers' College on Kintore Avenue, Adelaide.
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Don Hopgood started learning to play jazz trumpet at age 18, and played in jazz bands at church and university.
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Don Hopgood taught from 1960 at Le Fevre Boys' Technical High School for three years, then moved to Whyalla Technical High School for a year, then Westminster School for almost five years.
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Don Hopgood started teaching science, including physics, but after graduating in arts started teaching modern history as well.
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Don Hopgood did an honours degree in arts while teaching at Westminster.
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Don Hopgood won a three-year scholarship to study for a PhD from Flinders University, so left teaching to do his PhD in 1968.
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Don Hopgood was still studying for his PhD when he was elected to state parliament, so converted the final year to part-time.
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Don Hopgood's thesis was on history, which was within the School of Social Science at Flinders, titled "A Psephological Examination of the South Australian Labor Party from World War I to the Depression".
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Don Hopgood represented the House of Assembly seats of Mawson from 1970 to 1977 and Baudin from 1977 to 1993 for the South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party, and was promoted to the Labor frontbench in 1973.
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Don Hopgood was a lay preacher during his early years as a teacher.
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Don Hopgood was moderator of the Synod of South Australia of the Uniting Church in Australia from 1997 to 1999.
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Don Hopgood got engaged in Whyalla in 1963 and married in 1964.
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Don Hopgood's wife moved to Adelaide with him and taught at Westminster School.