Milton N. Hopkins

Milton Newton Hopkins Jr. (1926-2007) was a South Georgia farmer, conservationist, naturalist, and author. After his boyhood in Fitzgerald, Georgia, he served in World War II, in the Pacific theatre, and later received a degree in zoology from the University of Georgia. Hopkins was known primarily as an ornithologist, and was a president of the Georgia Ornithological Society, an editor of its magazine, The Oriole, and received the Society's Earl R. Greene Award for outstanding contributions to Georgia ornithology. He published numerous observations of birdlife in South Georgia over the years, and was good friends with many preeminent Southern naturalists, notably, Herbert L. Stoddard, author of The Bobwhite Quail: Its Habits, Preservation and Increase, considered by most the standard reference on the subject. In 1975, the Georgia Ornithological Society published Hopkins' book, The Birdlife of Ben Hill County, Georgia and Adjacent Areas. Hopkins traveled widely, but was firmly rooted in his native South Georgia. The bulk of his adult life was spent at Osierfield, in Irwin County, where he and his family lived in a restored train depot. An ardent conservationist who balanced agribusiness with a concern for the environment, Hopkins was named national Outstanding Tree Farmer of the Year in 1981 by the American Tree Farm System. In his later years, Hopkins remained very active and befriended Janisse Ray, author of the modern classic Ecology of a Cracker Childhood. Ray was instrumental in encouraging him to publish a collection of his stories of farm life in South Georgia, and in 2001 his book In One Place: The Natural History of a Georgia Farmer was issued to great reviews. In 2001 he also published Around Fitzgerald, Georgia In Vintage Picture Postcards, part of Arcadia's Postcard History Series. A lifelong student of local history and collector of related ephemera, most of the items highlighted were from his vast personal collection.

References: Milton N. Hopkins, Jr., The Birdlife of Ben Hill County, Georgia and Adjacent Areas, Georgia Ornithological Society, 1975. Milton N. Hopkins, Jr., Around Fitzgerald, Georgia in Vintage Picture Postcards, Arcadia Publishing Co., Charleston SC, 2001 Milton N. Hopkins, Jr., In One Place: The Natural History of a Georgia Farmer, Saltmarsh Press, St. Simons Island GA, 2001