Wayne John Hoffman
1937 – 2023
Long-time Santa Barbara resident Wayne John Hoffman, 85, recently passed away in his home, surrounded by loving family.
Wayne was born in Chicago, Illinois, the oldest child of Raymond and June Hoffman, in late 1937. When Wayne was a child, his family moved frequently, he had strong memories of his time in Santa Monica during World War II, watching the airplanes flying out to sea. Eventually, his family settled in Memphis, Tennessee. There as a young teenager, he met his future wife, Paulette, at a dance class; their fathers worked together at an International Harvester factory. Wayne was a natural athlete, he particularly excelled at baseball. He went to Christian Brothers High School where his team played in a charity double-header, when a young local singer named Elvis Presley displayed his early rock ‘n roll talents during intermission. Wayne also played on a Memphis All-Star team, but was injured right before playing an all-star team from Arkansas. One player on the visiting team sought out Wayne to chat before the game: an infielder named Brooks Robinson. Wayne played American Legion ball during summers too, winning the Memphis batting championship in 1954 and playing on the state championship team in 1955.
He went to college at Christian Brothers College where he majored in electrical engineering. He courted and eventually married Paulette in 1960, the young couple moved to Chicago. Then eventually to Anaheim, California, where their first child, Andrew, was born. Shortly thereafter, they moved to Virginia, where Wayne worked as the only civilian on one of the first nuclear submarines. The couple had their second child, Kathleen (Kay), while in Virginia. Not wanting to be out to sea on the submarine for another year, he decided to move the family to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he went to work at Delco.
After two winters Wayne tired of the snow and asked to transfer to Goleta. In those days at Delco, Wayne worked in Oceanography, and scuba diving was a frequent part of his job as he worked on underwater test equipment. This job also required travel: he went to Hawaii, Europe, and Alaska, the latter as part of a nuclear test that was being done in the Aleutian Islands.
New to the area Wayne joined the Goleta Lions Club, which became a focal point of the family’s social life. After a few years there was a reorganization at Delco so Wayne and Paulette made a life altering decision and packed up their young family, rented out their home and headed off to Spain, a country Wayne had fallen in love with. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity for the family and for Wayne to study art in European museums. Where better to study the Masters, then in Europe. The family drove a Fiat 124 station wagon, staying in campsites and visiting museums in Belgium, France, Holland, Germany, Portugal, and Spain. Wayne typically made sketches of his subjects, eventually painting them, creating a bamboo easel that he strapped to the roof of the car when they traveled. While in Spain the family rented apartments in Moron de la Frontera (near Seville) and Rincon de la Victoria (near Malaga) for about seven months before resuming the camping trips in France, England, and Switzerland. Exactly 365 days after they left, the family returned to Santa Barbara, forever changed by their experiences.
In a stroke of good fortune, Wayne was able to return to work at Delco, the family returned to their lives but nothing was really the same. For Wayne art had become a new passion and it would dominate much of the rest of his life. He studied art formally at Santa Barbara City College, where he met the artist Ken Nack, who became a close friend as well as mentor and guide for his new vocation.
Wayne dabbled in many mediums throughout his life. For a time he had a printing press, at another time he had a kiln in his studio. However, it was acrylics that really held his attention. Wayne could draw anything and produced many realistic renditions of things or people he saw on his travels. What he really loved to create was abstract paintings and collages. He loved to incorporate metro tickets, receipts and other objects from his travels into his art.
Wayne and Paulette traveled frequently. They went to Europe many times, and also traveled to South America and Asia. Wayne was an avid runner. For years he ran in races, mostly 10K, he also ran and completed several marathons. After he won the Irish Sweepstakes he ran across Ireland with a friend, Dr. Bob Carmen.
After Wayne took an early retirement from Delco he was able to focus in earnest on his art. It was at this time that he started teaching art at Adult Ed through SBCC. His students loved his classes, they were always well attended. He volunteered his time at the Braille Institute both teaching art classes to partially sighted and teaching art history classes. Wayne and Paulette were long-time parishioners at St. Barbara Parish (the Old Mission) where they both volunteered their time.
Wayne went in front of the camera for a brief career as a model, appearing in a national print ad campaign for a financial services company – portraying a retired man. Wayne was a voracious reader, often reading several books in the span of a week. Wayne loved music, both listening to and playing. He played guitar in an early rockabilly band while in high school. In retirement he bought a piano and took lessons for the first time. He wanted to learn how to read music, before he’d always played by ear.
Wayne was a member of Vistas, his one man plays that he wrote and acted in, playing the ghosts of artists long gone, were so well attended that the next year he did something similar with female artists where he played an interviewer and engaged women friends to play the ghosts of the female artists.
Health problems eventually came with age. After Paulette’s passing in 2021, the problems steadily worsened. Wayne is survived by his sister, Susan Lawler, and his brother Raymond Hoffman, Jr.; his son Andrew, and his daughters Kay and Eileen; and his two grandsons, Sean and Alex Hoffman. A service will be held at the Old Mission at 11 am on Friday, January 19, 2024, with an open house at Wayne’s home following. If you knew Wayne through art or running or work or church or any other way, please come by and share your stories with the family. For more information RSVP to 4Hoffmaninfo@gmail.com.