Don Hopgood
Donald Jack Hopgood is a former South Australian politician who was the 5th Deputy Premier of South Australia from 1985 to 1992. Hopgood represented the South [Australian House of Assembly|House of Assembly] seats of Mawson from 1970 to 1977 and Baudin from 1977 to 1993 for the Australian [Labor Party (South Australian Branch)|South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party], and was promoted to the Labor frontbench in 1973.
Early life and education
Donald Jack Hopgood was born on born 5 September 1938 at Prospect, an inner northern suburb of Adelaide. His father worked at Berger Paints. His maternal grandfather worked at Islington Railway Workshops, while his paternal grandfather was a retired typesetter.Hopgood grew up in Prospect and was a member of the Prospect North Methodist Church Sunday school. He went to Prospect Primary School and Adelaide Boys' High School.
He then trained to be a teacher at Adelaide Teachers' College on Kintore Avenue, Adelaide. Hopgood started learning to play jazz trumpet at age 18, and played in jazz bands at church and university.
Career
Teaching
Hopgood taught from 1960 at Le Fevre Boys' Technical High School for three years, then moved to Whyalla Technical High School for a year, then Westminster School for almost five years. He started teaching science, including physics, but after graduating in arts started teaching modern history as well. He did an honours degree in arts while teaching at Westminster.He won a three-year scholarship to study for a PhD from Flinders University, so left teaching to do his PhD in 1968. He was still studying for his PhD when he was elected to state parliament, so converted the final year to part-time. His thesis was on history, which was within the School of Social Science at Flinders, titled "A Psephological Examination of the South Australian Labor Party from World War I to the Depression".
Politics
Hopgood represented the South Australian [House of Assembly|House of Assembly] seats of Mawson from 1970 to 1977 and Baudin from 1977 to 1993 for the South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party, and was promoted to the Labor frontbench in 1973.Other activities
Hopgood was a lay preacher during his early years as a teacher.He was moderator of the Synod of South Australia of the Uniting Church in Australia from 1997 to 1999.