(By ANITA HOPMANN)

As the plane cruised through the night sky, the remaining passenger stretched out with a glass of bourbon in hand, cowboy boots discarded to the side. The owner of the plane had already been dropped off at his golf course. Now, his private pilot, Larry Robinson, relaxed on the clock, letting a young Ernest “Bo” Hopmann fly to get more pilot hours.

Larry looked at the young pilot at the controls after casual conversation about family and Bo’s interest in law school and he told him, “You’re a smart kid. These planes will be here forever, boy. Go to law school and get your degree. Come back to them later. Being a lawyer will make you a life planes won’t.”

Ernest Otto Hopmann III was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas in 1962 to Ernest and Rosemary Hopmann Jr. In the quaint town of Dumas, Arkansas his weekday routine consisted of school from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. followed by farm work until sundown.

“I will make sure you drive these tractors enough to hate them so you will want to go to school and appreciate the education it gives you,” Ernest Hopmann Jr. said to his young son as they drove around the farm in a beat up old pickup truck.

Ernest Jr. was a tenant farmer in an area filled with family farms dating back for generations. Ernest Jr. and his wife Rosemary moved from Houston to Dumas in the 1950s. At age 10, Bo was already driving cars, and by 12 he was driving tractors to help out the family.

By the time Bo was walking across his high school graduation stage he was in the top 10 in his class and had been accepted to Louisiana Tech for aviation and engineering. However, he and his best friends went to five different colleges, so as he packed all his worldly possessions into his truck and drove down to his new life alone, Bo had no idea how scary and confusing it could be.

Arriving at “La Tech,” he found out he had never sent in the money and information for a dorm or his schooling in general, as his parents had never been to college and did not know the procedures. The university had over-booked students and he had no place to live. All the dorms were full and kids were being put in hotels.

Bo said he told the scholarship committee, “You persuaded me here on the promise of an academic scholarship, so you need to find me a place to stay, these other kids are not here for the same reasons I am and were not persuaded by the university to attend.” Within no time he had a room in an upperclassmen dorm.

It was not until an English teacher realized his merit and his outstanding marks in all of his English classes that he picked up an English minor with honors and dropped engineering to graduate with a B.S. in aviation sciences accompanied by that English minor with honors — and a history minor, too.

“The teachers would hold back punch cards for students they liked when registration was happening so you would walk up and be disappointed that they had no more spaces in the class, but then they would pull a card out they had saved just for you,” he said.

With another graduation stage crossed and another diploma in hand, Bo returned to aviation in Arkansas, flying with Larry Robinson to get more hours every now and again after he received all of his pilot’s licenses. This was when he was convinced that going back to school was the right answer. Larry showed him his life as a home builder and a pilot. Getting a successful job meant having your own airplanes, not flying someone else’s.

Dawning the doors of a university again, Bo dove head first into law school, completing the path in three years. Afterwards, he moved into his late aunt’s house in Houston, where he began as a court-appointed lawyer and moved up the ranks to begin his own practice. He now owns a successful law practice and firm in Houston.

However, when asked if all children should go to college to achieve this kind of success he said, “The world is full of really educated people now who cannot find a job. Yes, education got me where I am now, but that may not be the road to success for everyone. Trade school teaches young adults skills that they can build their own job empire out of, and in the end it is what makes you happy. College may not be for everyone.”

With a flourishing legal practice now built, Bo can afford his own planes which he uses to travel to practice law in other states, thus giving him his profession and his hobby all in one.

“I’ve known Bo for 25 years. He is one of the most honest, and hardest working guys I know,” said attorney-at-law Diane Ruel. “He should relax a bit more though. He takes care of his family and friends. If something ever comes up and I need help, he is someone I can always count on. He will do whatever is necessary to help the people he cares about. He is a solid individual and you can’t say that about many people in the world.”

He came from a farming town with barely 4,000 people, working on land his father did not even own. Now he owns a vast acreage of land there and, parts of the year, works alongside his sister and brother-in-law on some of Arkansas’ finest soil.

Life has a funny way of coming back around to its own beginnings. In the place where his own father made sure to send him away from to find success elsewhere, he can now find joy in adding it to his family’s lineage.

“Just make sure you find happiness in life and the rest will follow suit,” Bo said. “Even if college is not right for you, you can find success in yourself and follow it through.”

(Editor’s Note: This story is part of our Featuring Texans series. The writer of this story, Anita Hoppman, is the daughter of Ernest “Bo” Hoppman, and submitted this piece as part of ACC’s News Reporting 1 course.)