Bruce S. Hopping

Bruce Hopping (b. 1921, Saigon, Vietnam, died 17 May 2018, California, US) was a philanthrophist, college sports promoter and supporter of gay and young peoples' sexual rights.

Longtime activist and promoter of gay causes, Bruce Hopping is no stranger to the Far East. His father, a rich lumber baron, spent years in Vietnam to export mahogany when Bruce was a child. Attending Calver Military Academy, like all the rest of the class, Bruce volunteered for the Calvary, but asked to be transferred to aviation cadets because the military was short on pilots. Bruce served twice in the Navy, shot down while a pilot in World War II, he spent weeks on adrift on raft in shark infested waters in the South Pacific with his tail gunner. Called back in the Korean war, Bruce had a contretemps with his commanding officer at Baimbridge. A trust baby, Bruce has spent most of the rest of his life in Laguna Beach. A great promoter of high school and college athletics and friend of many of the major Ivy League coaches, Bruce still, at 90 years of age, takes high school water polo teams to perform in the Pacific islands, Vietnam, Latin America and African sites. Years ago, he founded the Kallos Kagathos Foundation, which funded several statues of athletes by the Princeton sculptor Joseph Brown at The International Swimming Hall of Fame (ISHOF). Far healthier than I am, Bruce jogs every day in the sands at Laguna and eats a healthy diet and pursues other healthful regimens. His mind, like his body, is active, articulate, and energetic.