Carolyn Hopkins MD's Obituary
Carolyn Hopkins, MD, passed away November 11, 2018 while at home near Gainesville. Carolyn was born June 14, 1949 in St. Louis Mo. to Paul and Mildred (Hake) Gubany. In 1971 Carolyn graduated from the University of Indiana, Bloomington. Upon the completion of her medical degree from the University of Missouri, Colombia, she enlisted in the U.S. Navy. Carolyn always considered her residency at the U S Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, and its association with the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology as perhaps the best training a young Pathologist could have. After residency, she was stationed at the US Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Florida, where she attained the rank of Lieutenant Commander before her discharge from active duty in 1982. While in Jacksonville, Carolyn met John Hopkins whom she would marry in 1983.
The next phase of Carolyn’s life would begin with an interview for a job as a staff Pathologist at Alachua General Hospital in Gainesville Fl. Drs. Melvin Clark and William Hamilton were impressed with Dr. Hopkins interview and with her credentials and quickly offered her a position in the practice. The three colleagues would work together until Dr. Clark retired, after which the two remaining pathologists continued their practice of laboratory medicine for medical staff and patients at the Alachua General Hospital and managed a busy outpatient laboratory service. Doctor Hopkins also served as an Associate Medical Examiner for the 8th Medical Examiner District serving the counties of Alachua, Baker, Bradford, Gilchrist and Union during her years at Alachua General Hospital.
Dr. Hopkins loved the diagnostic challenges of Surgical Pathology, Cytopathology, and the varied components of Clinical Laboratory Medicine including Clinical Chemistry, Hematology, Blood Banking, Microbiology, urinalysis, body fluid analysis, etc.
For many years Dr. Hopkins was the Chief of the Pathology Department at Alachua General Hospital, a responsibility she enthusiastically discharged. She was intensely involved in all phases of laboratory management and in hospital governance, serving in committees too numerous to cite in detail. Of note, Dr. Hopkins was the first female Chief of the Medical Staff at Alachua General Hospital.
She always took a personal interest in the career development of laboratory professionals and they responded in kind, making the Laboratory at AGH a model for successful medical laboratory practice.
In 2006, Dr. Hopkins joined the faculty in the Department of Pathology, Immunology and Laboratory Medicine at the University Of Florida College Of Medicine where she served as a Clinical Associate Professor of Pathology for two years. After leaving the academic medical community she established her own private practice of diagnostic pathology providing services for numerous medical group practices in north central Florida and beyond.
In 2014 Dr. Hopkins decided it was time to retire from the practice of medicine and begin the next phase of her life.
Carolyn loved her second home on the Matanzas River at Crescent Beach, and Gator Basketball games. She enjoyed playing golf (but would never keep score), riding her bike, swimming, and walking her dog Paisley. Exercise of any kind was something she took seriously.
Carolyn shared an intense interest in the history of WW II with her brother, Paul. Reading was always a very large part of her life: While working, it was a never ending supply of Medical Journals and upon retirement she dove into all the history books and novels that had been neglected in the years before.
Carolyn is survived by her husband of 35 years, John, and step daughter Michelle; her brothers Paul, of St Charles, and Peter Gubany of Chesterfield Mo., six nieces and nephews, and her dog Paisley.
A memorial service will be held Thursday, November 29, 2018 at 1:00 p.m. at Trinity United Methodist Church, 4000 NW 53rd Avenue, Gainesville, with Rev. Steve Price officiating. In lieu of flowers, a donation to the Wounded Warrior Project on her behalf would be greatly appreciated.
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