Richard Lee Hopping, OD, passed away in Fullerton, California, on August 12, 2025, at the age of 97.

A native of Ohio, he earned his Doctor of Optometry degree with Honors from Southern College of Optometry (SCO) in 1952. He and his wife, Patricia, returned to Ohio with their infant son, Ronald, and opened a private practice in Dayton. He was also employed by the U.S. Veterans Administration and is recognized as the first optometrist in the country to be on the staff at the VA from 1953 to 1957.

He was elected to the American Optometric Association (AOA) board of trustees in 1966 and served until 1973, including as president from 1971 to 1972. He proposed and worked to pass the AOA motion creating the historic Airlie House Conference on the Role of Optometry in Health Care in 1969. This event laid the groundwork for integrating optometry into the US health care system and helped focus the profession to expand the optometric scope of practice. It was a fundamental precursor to the diagnostic and therapeutic legislative scope gains for optometry over the following decades. Over 20 years after leading the Arlie House Conference, he continued to promote scope expansion as chair of the AOA Scope of Practice Conference in 1992.

After completing his service on the AOA board, Dr. Hopping became the first president of the Southern California College of Optometry (SCCO), formerly the Los Angeles College of Optometry, where he inspired thousands of future optometrists and leaders. During his 24-year innovative tenure (1973 to 1997), he led SCCO to the forefront in optometricclinical education and reinforced optometry’s place as a leading primary health care provider. He greatly expanded training into new clinical settings and developed an extensive outreach educational clinical program. He did this while taking the college from bankruptcy concerns to one of the largest endowments in the country for a school or college.

Dr. Hopping is also the founder and original author of the Optometric Oath recited and pledged by every optometrist at graduation ceremonies and optometric meetings across the nation.

He is preceded in death by his wife of 73 years, Patricia Louise (Vance) Hopping. He is survived by his 3 children: Ronald Lee Hopping, OD (Desiree, OD), Debra Lynn Hopping Davis (Tom), and Jerrold Alan Hopping (Rennie), 9 grandchildren, and 18 great-grandchildren.