Art Hoppe, Witty S.F. Newspaper Columnist, Dies

Art Hoppe, the San Francisco newspaper columnist who entertained readers of the Chronicle for 50 years, has died at age 74.

Hoppe, who worked as a reporter before starting his lively satirical column, once said that the life of a columnist is wonderful. “Who else,” he said, “gets paid to tell people what they think?”

For 39 years, Hoppe targeted any topic that tweaked his interest, sharing his opinions on presidents, politics and changing mores. When asked where he got his ideas, he responded: “I read through the newspaper very carefully each morning until I find an item I don’t understand and then sit in front of the word processor to explain it to everybody,” he said.

Hoppe’s column featured a cast of often delightful characters including redneck Joe Sixpak, Private Oliver Drab, General Hoo Dat Don Dar and the all-knowing expert Homer T. Pettibone.

Toward the end of his life, Hoppe shared something more personal with his readers: his struggle with lung cancer.

Born in Honolulu on April 23, 1925, Hoppe earned a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and was a U.S. Navy veteran of World War II.

He came to the Chronicle as a copy boy in 1949, showed an early aptitude for writing and was soon promoted to reporter. He trekked to a snowbound train in the Sierra Nevada, spent a week as a bum on skid row and was sent to Europe to explain to readers the foreign policies of Monaco and Liechtenstein.

During the race with the Soviet Union to put a man in space, Hoppe went to Zambia to write an eyewitness account of astronaut training, which included airmen being rolled down hills in barrels.

He got his own column after covering the 1960 presidential race between John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon. It eventually appeared five days a week and was syndicated in more than 100 newspapers.

Hoppe made fun of presidents using a variety of scenarios. In satire, he said, it is important to like your subject so you don’t “bludgeon them to death.” And to the end, he said that he liked a number of presidents, including Richard Nixon.

His coverage of the Kennedy administration bordered on soap opera parody with “Just Plain Jack,” the story of a lovable Irish family fond of cocktail parties, the bigger the better.

To cover the Lyndon B. Johnson administration, he created a combination of “Bonanza” and “The Beverly Hillbillies.”

Bill Clinton was one of Hoppe’s least favorite presidents, apparently losing the columnist during the “I didn’t inhale” episode.

“He’s the first person I ever heard of who smoked pot for the flavor,” Hoppe noted.

But Hoppe also could be serious as well. In August 1998, he wrote a column urging Clinton to resign over the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

In March 1971, he wrote eloquently of his private struggle as he changed his position about the war in Southeast Asia.

“The radio this morning said the Allied invasion of Laos had bogged down,” Hoppe wrote. “Without thinking, I nodded and said, ‘Good.’ And having said it, I realized the bitter truth: Now I root against my own country.”

“This is how far we have come in this hated and endless war. This is the nadir I have reached in this winter of my discontent. This is how close I border on treason.”

He was little impressed with his longevity at the Chronicle. In a column last July, he poked fun at making the half-century mark.

Hoppe died Tuesday at a San Francisco hospital. He is survived by his wife, Gloria, and four children. Funeral arrangements were pending.