Joss Hopstaken (1958) was born and raised in Roosendaal. He studied History at the University of Leiden and followed an education to senior archivist at the Rijksarchiefschool (National Archive College) in The Hague. As from 1988 Hopstaken has been operative in the archive and as of 2001 he is a town archivist of Roosendaal. Beside making inventories of district water board archives he published articles on the Higher Vocational Education in Breda, the middle class in Roosendaal en the local authorities in West-Brabant.