We are deeply saddened to report that longtime Watertown, Massachusetts, ElderLawAnswers member attorney John R. Hope took his own life April 19, 2018. In an obituary notice posted online April 24, his family asked “that you, like John, open your heart and offer compassion without judgment to others struggling with life’s obstacles.” The notice did not give Hope’s age but said he had been born in 1961.
Hope grew up in Poitiers, France; New York City; and Sandwich, New Hampshire, and his schooling included the Lycee Francaise de New York. Law was not his initial choice as a professional career. After graduating with honors from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a B.S. in Business and a concentration in Applied Mathematics, he took a job as a quantitative analyst at the brokerage/asset management firm PaineWebber in New York City. In 1989, Hope realized he would be happier working more directly with people, and, with the encouragement of a grandfather who was himself an attorney, Hope embarked on a law career, graduating with honors from Boston College Law School in 1992.
After serving as a judicial clerk to the justices of the Superior Court of Massachusetts, in 2003 Hope founded Hope Elder Law in Watertown, Massachusetts. At the time of his death he practiced with an associate, Samantha F. Gentel.
Hope had been a member of ElderLawAnswers since 2006 and was also a member of the National Academy of Elder law Attorneys (NAELA), the Massachusetts Chapter of NAELA, the Massachusetts Guardianship Association, the American Bar Association, the Massachusetts Bar Association and the Middlesex County Bar Association.
The Hope Elder Law’s website stressed Hope’s availability to clients and his ability to explain complicated topics in easy-to-understand language and to make people from diverse backgrounds feel at ease.
“John always introduced himself with his big smile and led with his compassionate heart,” the obituary notice in the Laconia (N.H.) Daily Sun stated, “and we want him to be remembered for the joy and comfort he brought to the world.”
To read Hope’s obituary, click here.
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