John Jay Hopkins (October 15, 1893 – May 3, 1957) was founder and president of

General Dynamics General Dynamics Corporation (GD) is an American publicly traded aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia. As of 2020, it was the fifth largest defense contractor in the world by arms sales and fifth largest in the Unit ...

from 1952 to 1957. Hopkins was born in

Santa Ana, California Santa Ana (Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a city in and the county seat of Orange County, California, United States. Located in the Greater Los Angeles region of Southern California, the city's population was 310,227 at the 2020 census. As ...

. He was assistant to the

Treasury Secretary The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal a ...

. In 1937, he joined

Electric Boat An electric boat is a powered watercraft driven by electric motors, which are powered by either on-board battery packs, solar panels or generators. While a significant majority of water vessels are powered by diesel engines, with sail power ...

as a lawyer, and eventually became director. In 1948, as president of Electric Boat, he purchased

Canadair Canadair Ltd. was a Canadian civil and military aircraft manufacturer that operated from 1944 to 1986. In 1986, its assets were acquired by Bombardier Aerospace, the aviation division of Canadian transport conglomerate Bombardier Inc. Canadai ...

and created

from that foundation in 1952. Hopkins created the golf

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

, which began as the Canada Cup in 1953, and donated the trophy for the event. Hopkins died in

Washington, DC Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

.Staff report (May 4, 1957). J.J. HOPKINS DIES; INDUSTRIALIST, 63; Chairman of Billion-Dollar General Dynamics Corp. Built Navy's Nautilus. PROPOSED ATOM PLANS. Winner of '53 Alger Award. Also Worked on Missiles. Founded Golf Group Little Known to Public. Developed Big Concern. Sponsored Golf Matches. ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

References

1893 births 1957 deaths People from Santa Ana, California American chief executives Golf people 20th-century American businesspeople University of California, Berkeley alumni Harvard Law School alumni {{1890s-US-business-bio-stub