Warbirds Online » Blog Archive » Ed Hopkins- First Director Of Aircraft Maintenance

The 1941 Historical Aircraft Group Museum lost one of its true treasures yesterday with the passing of Ed Hopkins who was HAG’s first and only Crew chief. In declining health, Ed was still (always) there as a consultant. He will be greatly missed. For those of you who did not know him, but knew of him:

The following is an article that was printed in this year’s Geneseo Air Show Program.
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As an aviation Mechanic, Ed Hopkins had only worked on one B-17, in Japan, during his military career. Curiously, that airplane ended up in Geneseo in 1986 and became Fuddy Duddy. Ed Hopkins for many years has been the Director of Aircraft Maintenance of the former National Warplane Museum, the 1941 Historical Aircraft Group Museum and Line Chief of the Geneseo Air Show.

As Director of aircraft maintenance, Ed has been responsible for the twenty-five, fifty, seventy-five and hundred hour checks and annual inspections of the Museum’s aircraft. This also includes preventative maintenance, verification of aircraft maintenance logs, reviewing Air Worthiness Directives and solving all major and minor problems that crop up in any type of aircraft.

As Air Show Line Chief, Eddie has had to figure out where to put a hundred plus aircraft on the ground, the fuel and oil, safety and flight line control along with where the fuel trucks need to be at what time before a performer goes up during the show.

As Ed has started to wind down his active involvement as Line Chief, Mike Lindsay will be going into his second year as Line Chief in training.

Eddie enlisted in the Army Air Force rather than be drafted in 1946. By enlisting in the USAAF he was able to fulfill an ambition to become “associated with airplanes in some way.” After finishing a tour of duty in Japan in 1949 Eddie returned to his home town of Schenectady, NY and finished high school. He also joined the NY Air National Guard in the spring of 1950 and was hired full time at the Guard in October 1950.

Through his regular AAF and ANG tenure Ed has worked on C-46s, C-47s, P-47s, P-51s, F-80s, C-54s, T-6s, T-33s, C-97s, B-25s and the C-130.

In 1956, Ed met and married his wife Raubie, a school teacher from Dansville, in Schenectady. They have three children and have spent a lot of time involved in Little League Baseball, and all levels of Boy and Girl Scouting. When Ed retired from the Guard in 1978, the Hopkins moved to Raubie’s family farm in Dansville.

Then Eddie attended his first Geneseo Air Show. He first volunteered his aircraft mechanic skills, then became a part-time employee in 1984 and Director of Maintenance in 1986 where he was then reunited with the B-17G he had worked on in Japan in 1946.

It has been a team operation since 1994 with Raubie coming in to take care of advertising and writing stories and press releases for then office manager Carrie Ringland. Raubie is now air show planning coordinator, runs PR, the advertising, the HAG store and she probably knows the majority of the nine hundred and fifty members of HAG on a first name basis while Ed is goofing off in the hangar. HAG owes a huge thanks to both the Hopkins.

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