Mary Ann Hoffman, 92, passed away on August 7, 2016, at Trinity Community in Beavercreek, Ohio. She was a resident of Bellbrook, Ohio, since 1964 prior to moving to Trinity in March of this year. Mary Ann was born in Downers Grove, Illinois, on June 15, 1924 to Alonzo and Martha Keene.
While she was attending Mills College in Oakland, California on a four year scholarship, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Because she was only 20 years old at the time she needed her parent's permission to join the Navy, which they gave her, with the promise that she would continue to finish her college education after the war ended. She attained the rank of Pharmacist Mate Third Class and was stationed at New Orleans Naval Hospital on Lake Ponchetrain. She worked on an orthopedic floor for several months before becoming the secretary to Captain Warfield, the Chief of the Radiology Department.
After her honorable discharge in March of 1946 she enrolled in the University of Louisville with the help of the G.I. Bill. She received her B.A. from the University of Louisville in 1948, Phi Alpha Theta, and that is where she met her husband, Jim Hoffman, who had also served as a Pharmacist Mate in the Navy.
After they moved to Bellbrook she was the assistant librarian at Miami Valley Hospital, and then the librarian at St. Elizabeth Medical Center, during which time she received her master's degree from Wright State University in 1979.
From 1979 to 1994 she was the Head Librarian of Collection Management Division of Special and General Collections at Fordham Health Sciences Library, Wright State University, where she managed the Ross McFarland Aerospace Medicine Collection. She became a Certified Archivist in 1989, and after her retirement used her skills and knowledge to process the records of The Ohio State Association of Nurse Anesthetists.
Once she became widowed, she focused her love and energies on her grandchildren. She made a special effort to have lunch with each one of them on a one to one basis at least once a month if possible, besides attending their soccer and football games.
Mary Ann took great pride in the fact that all her children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews had their college degrees. She found great joy in celebrating annual extended family and friend's get-togethers to fish, enjoy great food and win playing competitive card games. Mary Ann loved to travel, and for her 90th birthday requested that the whole family venture together to Nova Scotia, Canada. And so, during their trip to Halifax and Cape Breton Island they celebrated her birthday with dinner at the Keltic Lodge overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.
She was an avid needlepoint and embroidery artist for years until her health prevented her from creating new masterpieces. Her husband would transfer photographs to graph paper and she would transfer these to canvas. She also belonged to the Needlepoint Guild, several bridge groups and a Bible study group in her later years.
In lieu of flowers donations may be made to St. George's Episcopal Church, 5520 Far Hills Avenue, Dayton, Ohio; The Bellbrook-Sugarcreek Family Resource Center, 51 S. East Street, Bellbrook, Ohio 45305; The Salvation Army or the Southern Poverty Law Center.
