Hopson Out?

Harassed by lawsuits, investigations and public suspicion, Howard Colwell Hopson, 53, resigned as officer and director of all Associated Gas & Electric units. Though usually listed in Associated reports as vice president & treasurer, the bald, roly-poly utilitarian with the flair for corporate obscurantism was the system's undisputed boss. He, not President John Isaac Mange, was the quarry in the Washington manhunts staged last summer by rival and Senate inquisitors (TIME, July 29, et seq.)

Ostensible reason for Mr. Hopson's retirement was poor health. Testifying in Washington, an Associated lobbyist once declared: "I've been told by physicians that if he ever developed a sore throat he would choke to death." However, the fact that this year Mr. Hopson has spent only a month in his Manhattan office is probably traceable to a devout desire to dodge process servers. Among Associated suits now pending are a mail-fraud case and a stockholders' action to recover some $1,000,000 allegedly milked from the system by a Hopson personal holding company. In announcing their chief's resignation, Associated said that Mr. Hopson would retain his "interest."

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