JOHN RICHARD HOFF (1909-1970)

HOFF, SCOTT

Posted By: JOHN SCOTT HOFF (email)
Date: 5/16/2004 at 15:52:05

JOHN RICHARD HOFF (biographical data entry). He was born 6 Nov 1909 DSM, IA - and died 4 Nov 1970 DSM, IA. He was the first of 3 children born to parents JOHN CASSIUS HOFF (1875 - 1963) and MABLE MINA TENNANT (1888 - 1963). He grew up at 1325 - E. 13th, DSM, IA, and graduatecd from East High School in 1927, where he had been active in the first Troop of Boy Scouts of America in Iowa, debate, and plays/acting. He attended Drake Univ. for 2 years and was a member of Sigma Alpha Episalon (SAE), and then received a scholarship to Northwestern Univ.'s Business School in Chicago, where he graduated in 1931 (BSBA) in insurance. He began work for the Insurance Co. of North America (INA) as a Field Agent and Special Agent in Sioux Falls, SD. On 1 Sep 1934 he married VALETTA FLORENCE SCOTT (1912 - Now) in Grace Methodist Church in DSM, and they lived in Sioux Fall, SD. He was unable to serve in WWII die to a fused ankle which resulted from a childhood injury. He left INA and moved back to DSM, where in 1946 he began the Hoff Insurance Agency. He was active in the Central Presbyterian Church and acting in the Kendall Playhouse and the Des Moines Community Playhouse. He and his wife "Scotty" purchased a summer house on South Shore Dr., Clear Lake, IA and spent summers and weekend with their boys there for nearly 4 decades. He liked pheasant hunting and power boating. He had two sons:
1. JOHN SCOTT HOFF (2 Jan 1946 DSM, IA - Now living in Chicago, IL); and,
2. ROBERT TENNANT HOFF (4 Jun 1948 DSM - Now living in Washington, DC).

Upon the death of his father in 1960, he and his two sisters, JEANNE BEATRICE HOFF GOODWIN, Wife of William J. Goodwin, Jr., Esq., a prominant DSM attorney and businessmand, and his other sister, DORIS MAE HOFF HOHL, of Ames, wife of educator, George Hohl, PhD., a dept. head at ISU, inherited the HOFF FARM. In about 1963, after a freeway was place through the middle of the former location of the Des Moines G&C Club, they needed to relocate, and they purchased the farm in Walnut Twp., Dallas Co. It now has two award-winning 18-hole golf courses, ending the Hoff tenure in Dallas Co., IA.

JOHN RICHARD HOFF merged his insurance agency into the Hopkins Agency in about 1969. He had smoked and drank heavily,l ruining his health. HE died on 4 Nov 1970 (at age 61) of health complications relating to that past-time. He was extremely out-going, an extrovert, gragarious and a fun-loving 'party-type'. He had a great sense of humor and loved his two sons. His services were held at Dunn's Funeral Home, and was interred in the DSM Glendale Cem. at 50th and University Ave. next to his father and mother. His widow, VALETTA FLORENCE SCOTT ("Scotty") moved from 692-48th St., literally across the street to 695-48th st., from 1971-1980. She sold the Clear Lake summer residence in the late 1970s , then in 1980 moved to a house at 5509-59th St., and sold this residence in Nov 2000, to Wesley Acres at 3520 Grand Ave., an "assisted care facility", where she now resides in 2003, at age 91.
(information from his son, JOHN SCOTT HOFF in Chicago, IL).