Kenneth Alvin Hopen

Obituary

Guest Book

"Our thoughts & prayers are with you on this day. Blessings..."

View Sign

Kenneth Alvin Hopen

Kenneth Alvin Hopen, 78, passed away peacefully with his family by his side on Jan 2, 2013 of natural causes. He was born Feb 20, 1934 in Seattle, Washington to Astrid & Ludvig Hopen. He spent his formative years in Seattle, where he graduated from Roosevelt H.S. in 1951. Before finishing high school, he enlisted in the US Coast Guard Reserves. While also in the Reserves, he studied at the University of Washington and was a baseball pitcher for the Huskies. During the summer break, he also pitched for the Seattle Rainiers baseball team. After finishing those two years of reserve duty, he began full time active duty with the Coast Guard where he was stationed in Port Angeles on NAN Patrol vessels. Ken was married in 1959 and soon after continued his life passion and founded Glas-Ply Boats, which became one of the major boat manufacturers in the Northwest. For more than 25 years, Glas-Ply went on to sell over 10,000 boats worldwide. Over Ken's career he received many industry awards and accolades for the design and quality of his boats, and even served on the US Coast Guard Boating Safety Counsel in Washington DC. Ken completed his working career with Boeing in the mid 1990's.

Ken was happy to be a 40 year resident of Edmonds and he thoroughly enjoyed living there with family and friends. Ken is survived by his brother Don Hopen (Karen), niece Susan, nephew John, his Aunt Dolly Hayman and her family. His children Debbie Appleby (Mike), Vicki Storino (Mike), Chris Hopen (Sue). Ken also had 8 grandchildren, Tiffany, Ryan and Whitney Appleby, Josh (Stephanie) and Jared (Natalie) Olin, Mackey, Zane and Delaney Hopen, and great grandson Brayden.

Ken's Celebration of Life service will be held at 2pm on January 11th at: Calvary Fellowship 23302 56th Ave Mountlake Terrace WA.

Published in The Seattle Times on January 6, 2013