The Reverend English Hopkins “Hop” Weston, 95, of Irmo, SC, died Friday, June 24, 2016. His funeral will be held Friday, July 1, 2016, at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Columbia, SC, at 10:00 a.m. Following the service, the Cathedral will host a reception at the church. The Burial of Ashes Service will take place Friday, July 1, 2016, at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Congaree, SC, at 2:00 p.m. Following the service, St. John’s will host a reception at the church. Hop was born December 12, 1920, at 1017 Elm Savannah Road, Hopkins, SC, a son of the late Christian Tucker “Tuck” Weston and the late Mary “Molly” Postell Hopkins Weston. He was baptized at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Hopkins, SC, and confirmed by The Right Reverend Kirkman George Finlay. He attended Gadsden School, a one-room schoolhouse, and graduated from Consolidated High School in 1937. In 1941, he received a Bachelor’s degree in English from The Citadel. He was active in the National Youth Administration, Calliopean Literary Society, Glee Club, Choir and YMCA and attained the rank of 2nd Lieutenant his senior year. To help with expenses, Hop and his brother, Tucker, sold newspapers and magazines in the barracks, and Hop knew the names of nearly every cadet, a habit he maintained with his classmates for the rest of his life. In his senior year college annual, the editors wrote of him, “Hop is the purest man we know.” He entered Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Virginia, in the fall on 1941, and, following the attack on Pearl Harbor, listened via radio on the steps of the U. S. Capitol to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “Day of Infamy” Speech, witnessed the President’s arrival and departure from the Capitol, and sat in the gallery of the Senate as they voted to declare war on Japan. With the sudden and urgent need for military chaplains, he studied year-round to complete his Master of Divinity degree in two, rather than the usual three, years. He was ordained as a Deacon by The Right Reverend John James Gravatt on September 16, 1943, and as a Priest by Bishop Gravatt on December 1, 1944. He was just completing the required period of training when WWII ended and thus missed military service. In his 66 years of active ministry, Hop served at Trinity Episcopal Church (now Trinity Cathedral), Columbia, SC; St. Andrew’s, Greenville, SC; Good Shepherd, Greer, SC; Epiphany, Laurens, SC; Good Shepherd, York, SC; The Episcopal Church Home for Children, York, SC; St. Luke’s Chapel – “In-As-Much Mission,” Chattanooga, TN; St. Paul’s, Chattanooga, TN; St. Alban’s, Kingstree, SC; St. Luke’s, Andrews, SC; Church of the Holy Apostles, Barnwell, SC; St. Alban’s, Blackville, SC; Holy Trinity, Grahamville, SC; Church of the Cross, Bluffton, SC; Church of the Nativity, Union, SC; and Calvary, Glenn Springs, SC. In 1987, he retired from full-time ministry and returned to his childhood home in Hopkins, SC. During his retirement, he served as Chaplain to Still Hopes Episcopal Retirement Community, West Columbia, SC, and Finlay House, Columbia, SC, and frequently supplied at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Congaree, Hopkins, SC, and St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Eastover, SC. He participated in Cursillo and Kairos Prison Ministry and was a member of the Eastover Ruritan Club. Throughout his life, Hop was known and loved for his kind, humble, and thankful spirit, and those who knew him were amazed at his ability to remember almost everyone he had ever met. First and foremost, Hop loved people. He delighted in speaking with everyone he encountered and getting to know them their stories, their backgrounds, their interests. Profoundly fond of family and local history, it became proverbial of Hop that, given fifteen minutes with a new acquaintance, he could trace family connections to the point that the two would part company cousins of some, perhaps distant, but remarkably specified, degree. He loved nature with a similar passion, perennially cultivating vegetable and ornamental gardens wherever he lived, unceasingly bringing selections of that living beauty indoors to bless interior living and worship spaces with God’s handiwork, and making the most of every chance he had to stop at parks and byways to explore with childlike eagerness, curiosity, and awe God’s grandeur displayed in creation. He was deeply grateful to have been able to be a priest of the Church and to have had the opportunity to have served so many wonderful parishes and communities throughout his long life, each of which he treasured and ever after recounted memories of the dear people with whom he had shared life and who had blessed him and his family. Most of all, he loved and truly served God, the Father whom he had known and sought to please all his life. Hop is survived by his daughter, Sarah Conway, and her children, Elisabeth, Edwin, James, and Sarah Catherine “Cat”; son, English (Linda) Weston; son, Andrew (Rita) Weston and their children, Amanda (Jordan) Nabb and Brian (Jenn) Weston; daughter, Laura (Kevin) Benson and their children, Emma, Abigail “Abby”, Millie, and Nathanael “Nate”; brother-in-law, Frederick Noel Ferguson; sister-in-law, Dorothy “Dot” Crawford Ulrey, as well as four nephews, two nieces, and 11 great-nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his beloved wife, Sarah “Sallie” Catherine Crawford Weston; brothers, Dr. Christian Tucker Weston and William “Willie” Isaac Weston; brother-in-law, Hugh Johnson Ulrey; and sisters-in-law, Polly Hanckel Weston and Faith Crawford Ferguson. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to St. John’s Episcopal Church, Congaree, 1151 Elm Savannah Road, Hopkins, SC 29061-8938.
Posted in: The State
Posted on: 2016-06-29
Link to original obituary: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/thestate/obituary.aspx?n=english-hopkins-weston-hop&pid=180494087#sthash.DqJ97CZb.dpuf