Preston’s son … and Guelph’s kind people person
Fred Hoffman Born: June 22, 1929, in Cambridge Died: April 10, of heart-related illness
This Thursday, Fred Hoffman’s family will receive a posthumous award from the City of Guelph’s mayor for the retired optometrist’s 63 years of service in the Guelph Kiwanis Club.
The award also recognizes the Kiwanis Christmas Luncheon that Fred started more than 30 years ago.
The annual event brings together 500 students from Upper Grand District School Board’s developmental disabilities class — youth who look forward to an event that is all about them, all about making their day special.
Last year, the school board recognized Fred’s volunteer work with an Everyday Hero Award.
Fred was a people person, he wanted to help and he loved to be recognized, which is not to say he did the work for pats on the back. Quite the contrary. Fred had a kind heart and just couldn’t help himself when he thought there was any need in the community.
The mayor’s award would have been a big deal for Fred.
“Dad would have loved this,” said Tony Hoffman, one of his four children.
“He was really sociable. He wanted to have people around and wanted to bring people together.
“If a couple of people happened to drop by, he’d turn that into a bigger event.”
Fred was born in the Cambridge village of Preston, an only child.
His mother was a nurse, his dad worked in a local plant and after graduating from Preston High School, Fred worked for a local jeweller who had some optical equipment in the shop. This intrigued Fred and set him on a path to become an optometrist.
As a youth he had belonged to the air cadets and even attained a pilot’s licence but university, followed by marriage to Shirley Kyle and children meant there was never enough money or time to fly so he gave it up.
Fred graduated from the University of Toronto’s School of Optometry in 1952, opened a small practice in downtown Kitchener then, discouraged by a slow start, decided to pull up roots and head to Guelph where he went into partnership with another optometrist.
The equipment he ended up using in his new digs had a surprising history for the young man.
Fred once told a reporter that in 1945 he’d been in Guelph with friends to see Nat King Cole perform at Paradise Gardens and on their way home, the boys stopped to watch a fire at the Bond Building in the downtown core. Firefighters were hauling equipment from E.P. Head Optometrist out to safety on the street.
“Little did I know then that a few years later I would become the owner of that same equipment,” Fred had recalled.
After two years in partnership, Fred became sole owner of the business where he worked until 1994, four decades of serving the public with his gentle, kind approach.
Tony recalls being in the back of the office waiting for his dad on occasion and hearing the conversations. He was always struck by how his father remembered small details about his patient’s lives: names, pets, curious incidents and he always showed genuine interest in everyone.
“He was so focused on each individual,” said Tony.
In his eulogy, Mike MacIntyre spoke of his friend’s volunteer work in Kiwanis. Mike, a fellow longtime member, said Fred was the club’s historian, statistician and he was always deeply involved in all club activities, including the Kiwanis Music Festival.
“Most of all it was Fred’s love for Kiwanis Camp Belwood” said Mike.
There was nothing the camp needed that Fred couldn’t source, everything from appliances to empty toilet paper rolls for crafts. Fred was presented with the club’s prestigious Mel Osborne Award and the old farmhouse on the property is named in his honour.
The camp for developmentally delayed children was always close to Fred’s heart. The couple’s youngest child, Jane, was born with several challenges so he understood what joy such a camp could bring to a child who otherwise lives on the fringes.
Fred also volunteered with the Guelph Wellington Men’s Club though technically he was not a senior and the club had been designed as an offshoot of Kiwanis for older members wanting to slow down. Fred didn’t want to slow down.
He actually officially joined in 2005, serving on the board of directors.
Then there was the less serious stuff: his membership in the ROMEOs, an acronym for Retired Old Men Eating Out. The group of guys met weekly at the Cutten Club.
Tony said, “They’d discuss all the problems of the world, come up with solutions then go home.”
Of the few times Fred allowed himself to relax, it would be at the family cottage in Southampton, a place the family affectionately called “Club Fred.”
Tony has many happy and funny memories growing up with Fred as his father, such as the time the four kids all developed a mysterious itch and discovered the always helpful Fred had washed their clothes with a set of fibreglass curtains. Oops.
In his tribute, Tony spoke of how his father was always there at every sporting event, cheering and encouraging from the sidelines even when their team was losing.
“Dad loved to be involved with
family,” he said.
Shirley said her husband was a bit of a workaholic but he always made time for his volunteer events and of course for family.
The couple met at a gas station behind Fred’s office.
Shirley laughs at the memory of this perhaps not so romantic location.
Shirley, a medical doctor, was working at Homewood at the time but after they married in 1957, the couple purchased a house on Woolwich Street where she maintained a small medical practice for about 20 years.
Shirley also spoke of his lifetime membership with the Presbyterian Church where he devoted considerable time.
“It was an important part of his life,” she said.