Johns Hopkins being remembered at graveside ceremony

Johns Hopkins employees, alumni and students are honoring the man whose name their university and hospital bears with a graveside visit.

The university says in a statement that a ceremony will take place Saturday morning at Hopkins’ grave in Baltimore’s Green Mount Cemetery. Saturday is the 143rd anniversary of Hopkins’ death. When he died in 1873, the banker left $7 million to establish a university and hospital.

Saturday’s graveside visit is the 18th consecutive Christmas Eve observance. The university says the ceremony will include informal remembrances of Hopkins and a memorial wreath.

Afterward, guests can visit Hopkins’ former summer estate, Clifton Mansion, which is two miles away and now the home of the non-profit Civic Works. There, guests can toast Hopkins with a cup of cider and tour the mansion.