Elliot Budd Hopkins was born in 1931 and raised in Wheeling, West Virginia.[3][4] He lived with his parents, Elliot T. Hopkins and Eleanor A. Hopkins, brother, Stewart, and sister, Eleanor.[5] At age two, Hopkins contracted polio.[3] During the long recovery process, Hopkins developed an interest in drawing [2][3] and watercolors,[6] which eventually lead him to Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio, where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in art history in 1953.[3] It was here, Hopkins was exposed to art with "a capital A,"[7] and attended a lecture by Robert Motherwell that first introduced him to the "automatic, gestural approach that Motherwell espoused."[7]From Oberlin, Hopkins moved to New York City, where he met Franz Kline, Mark Rothko, Robert Motherwell, Willem de Kooning and other abstract expressionists.[2][3][7] For a time, Hopkins studied art history at Columbia University and worked a low-level job selling tickets at the Museum of Modern Art.[7][8] His experimentation with collage techniques and style as an abstract expressionist,[9] won him national acclaim.[4] Hopkins' first solo show was held in New York City in 1956, the same year he met and married his first wife of thirteen years, Joan Rich.[7]In 1976, Hopkins was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for painting[citation needed]. He also received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts[citation needed]. His articles on art appeared in magazines and journals, and he lectured at many art schools, including Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill.[citation needed] In 1993 he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member and became a full Academician in 1994.[citation needed]After the publication of Missing Time in 1981,[4] his UFO research began to take precedence over his art.[2][3] As a self-described humanist,[10] Hopkins saw his work with alleged alien abduction victims as a way to bring attention to an otherwise marginalized part of society.[11] His follow up book Intruders: The Incredible Visitations at Copley Woods, published in 1987,[12] helped establish Hopkins as a prominent leader in the UFO movement.