Retired anthropology professor’s home to fund scholarship at UA

FAYETTEVILLE — A scholarship fund for University of Arkansas students interested in historic preservation will be established through proceeds from the sale of a retired professor’s donated house.

The Michael P. and Margaret J. Hoffman Endowed Scholarship Fund in Historic Preservation will be named after retired anthropology professor Michael Hoffman and his wife, Margaret, also a former UA faculty member who died in 2011. Margaret Hoffman was known as Peggy.

Michael Hoffman will continue living in his longtime home under what’s known as a retained life estate donation.

Barlow Mann, chief operating officer for Memphis, Tenn.,-based charity consultants Sharpe Group, said retained life estate gifts allow donors to receive federal income tax deductions, which are calculated based on the value of the gift and how many years donors are expected to continue using the property.

The Memphis firm wasn’t involved in the Hoffman gift, he said.

Jennifer Holland, UA’s director of development communication, said a fair market value for the donation has yet to be calculated. The Washington County Assessor’s Office lists an estimated market value of $341,100 for the house and land in the Washington-Willow Historic District of Fayetteville.

The Hoffmans worked with other faculty members interested in preservation while at UA and discussed giving up their home, built in the 1800s, to UA’s architecture school, according to the university’s announcement of the gift.

“This scholarship gift, based upon their historic home and their friendships with so many of the school’s foundational faculty, possesses special significance for us and for the enhancement of our program in preservation design,” Peter MacKeith, dean of UA’s Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, said in a statement.