Larry Hopper, FAICP, is an alumnus of the OU Master of Regional and City Planning program and is currently a freelance planning consultant. He was formerly the principal planner for the transit agency for Oklahoma City. An Oklahoma native, Hopper has ties to OU that connect back to the 1940’s when his great uncle, E.C. Hopper, was Chairman of the Board of Regents.
Hopper is still an active member of the OU community, and recently donated $25,000 to the Gibbs College of Architecture to establish the Hopper Family’s Planning Scholarship. According to Hopper, “Being at OU felt like being home. It still does, even now when I come down for a sporting event or the Placemaking Conference.” We sat down with him to learn more about his experience at OU and in the professional planning field, and what inspired him to give back to the university. Read on for highlights.
Hopper on the cover of the 1982 OU Class Bulletin.
Ever since he was a little kid, Hopper knew he was interested in cities and city planning. He explained, “Back in the sixth grade, they wanted us to write about an occupation. And oddly enough, I picked city planning.” However, because of his aptitude for math and science, Hopper originally went to OU on a petroleum engineering scholarship.
Hopper eventually realized that his real passions were elsewhere, “I changed my major to geography because something I read in a geography book was talking about cities and their futures. And a week or two later I decided, ‘I’m going to major in geography as a preparation to go to planning school.’ It just seemed like a better fit because I like dealing with people and helping people. And to me, it’s kind of a helping profession.”
Hopper and his family in the Capitol Hill Beacon in 1993.
He graduated from OU as a first-generation college student with a Bachelor of Arts in 1979 and a Master of Regional + City Planning in 1981. According to Hopper, “College education definitely helped me find an eight to five kind of a job. It’s something that gave me a career and connections that I don’t think I would’ve had otherwise.” Early in his career, he served as Planning Director of the Southern Oklahoma Development Association in Ardmore, Oklahoma.
He eventually went on to serve as a planner deeply involved with the Oklahoma City Bricktown early revitalization, trails planning, zoning administration and a wide range of other activities. Since 1999, his focus has been more on public transportation and land use planning, such as being the project planner for the Oklahoma City streetcar, the region’s fixed guideway plan, the OKC Northwest Rapid BRT (now under construction) and more.
Hopper on a segway in Bricktown, OKC.
Hopper credited his experience at the OU Planning School for his successful planning career, “We had three really great professors: Rogers, Lehr and Goins. Each of them had a different area of focus, and they prepared us well for becoming planners.” He highlighted one professor in particular, “The insights and training I gained about urban design from Bob Goins helped me when I was developing the original design guidelines for Bricktown and was fostering the first design review board in OKC for buildings besides houses in neighborhoods.”
Hopper with his college roomate in front of the OKC Streetcar.
However, his life was changed forever when he was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 27. For Hopper, this diagnosis was a wake-up call, “I was about to turn 28 and I thought, ‘I need to get with it,’ in terms of my profession. ‘I’ve been at this now for three or four years. I need to get involved in a trade association, the American Planning Association.’ And so I did.”
He continued, “I ran for vice president, and then I spent two years as the president of the American Planning Association chapter here. And from there I just kept finding ways to give back. Even though we identify with what we do for an occupation, the more complete picture of ourselves is what we do off the job, with our family, for our family and for the community. And, you know, we can always give, all of us can give back.”
Hopper with family at an OU softball game.
He beat his initial cancer diagnosis and continued to evolve in his career and give back to the local community. However, in 2017 he was diagnosed with colon cancer. According to Hopper, “The cancer when I was 27 is what changed my life. This one made it a little more intentional. There were many loose ends that I knew I needed to tie up. And one of them was that aim, that purpose, that dream of endowing a scholarship.”
Hopper with his wife and kids at his daughter’s OU graduation.
A few years ago, Hopper spearheaded the collaborative effort to endow a scholarship in honor of Professor Goins, but he knew he wanted to endow his own scholarship in the future. His dream came true with his most recent donation to establish the Hopper Family’s Planning Endowed Scholarship Fund, which will provide scholarships for students and help the college with reaccreditation efforts.
“Part of why it’s called the Hopper Family Scholarship is that I’m hoping they’ll continue to add to it, or someday endow a separate scholarship for the OU program from which they graduated,” he explained. “All three of my kids went to OU. I met my wife at OU. So that’s part of why I’m glad to give back. And, by the time I’d been in the field for a few short years, I appreciated what I’d learned at OU.” He hopes that his gift will inspire others to donate to the university as well, “I just feel like everybody can give back and should. To some extent, I’d like for people to say, ‘If Larry Hopper can do something, I can too.”
Today, Hopper is a member of Leadership OKC, Rotary and various other organizations. He is also a member of the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Certified Planners, which is the highest honor the AICP can bestow upon a member. He is an avid supporter of our youth and the next generation of planners, and has mentored three youth teams in “Future City” competitions that all reached the national finals.
Associate Professors Lee Fithian, Ph.D., and Elizabeth Pober have published a chapter in the recently released New Perspectives in Indoor Air Quality, published by Elsevier. Their contribution, titled “Chapter 16 – Architecture and the Challenges of Indoor Air Quality,” examines the relationship between architecture and indoor air quality.
Dr. Ladan Mozaffarian, Assistant Professor of Regional and City Planning, has been selected to serve as Co-Chair of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) Planners of Color Interest Group (POCIG) for the 2025–2027 term.
The Gibbs College of Architecture is proud to recognize Tahsin Tabassum, a recent graduate of the college’s Master of Regional and City Planning program and current doctoral student at the University of California, Irvine, for receiving the prestigious 2024–2025 American Planning Association (APA) Outstanding Student Award.
