Funeral services for Wayne Albert Hoffman will be held Thursday, Sept. 9, at 1 p.m. at Burley Funeral Chapel, Oak Harbor with Pastor David Lura officiating. Interment will follow at Maple Leaf Cemetery. Visitation will be held at Burley Chapel on Wednesday from 1 to 3 p.m. and on Thursday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Wayne A. Hoffman, 88, died at his home in Oak Harbor Sept. 3, 2004. He was born June 12, 1916, to Oak Harbor pioneers, G. Albert and Mary (Sickel) Hoffman. Wayne was raised on the family farms in the Clover Valley area. He graduated from Oak Harbor High School with the Class of 1933.
Wayne was the quarterback of the high school football team and received a partial scholarship to college. He attended Western Washington College in Bellingham and then Washington State College in Pullman, but due to the Great Depression, he was forced to return to Oak Harbor. He left Oak Harbor for a time and took his first and last airplane ride to Alaska to seek work. He returned home and was married to Agnes Jacobson in Everett in 1940.
Wayne operated Hoffman’s Poultry Farm off Torpedo Road for many years. He raised and processed chickens for distribution to local merchants. He served on the Oak Harbor School Board from 1950 through 1953. As the Navy sought to expand the Ault Field property, they purchased the Hoffman property. Wayne kept his house and moved it to Highway 20 in 1958. Next to the house, Wayne built the Suncrest Motel (now known as Auld Holland Inn).
Wayne later purchased a laundry facility in Edmonds with a business partner, which he operated for a time and then moved on to purchase a furniture store in Marysville. He returned to Oak Harbor and in 1973, built the Acorn Motor Inn. Wayne retired in 1973. Following the death of his wife Agnes, Wayne was married to Setsuko Ito.
Wayne loved golf and was a member of the Whidbey Golf and Country Club. He was an avid football fan and held season tickets to the University of Washington Huskies for many years.
Mr. Hoffman is survived by his wife Setsuko at the family home, Oak Harbor; by his daughter Janet Lather and her husband Fred of Danville, Calif.; by a step daughter Toni Sadler and her husband John of Snohomish; and one stepson Tom Dannunzio and wife Kire of Boise, Idaho. Two grandchildren, Christina Lather of Berkeley, Calif. and Jennifer Lather of Danville, Calif., and one nephew Al Hoffman of Kennewick also survive. He was preceded in death by two brothers, Victor and Fred Hoffman and two sisters Mirth Hall and Irene Lindell and one son John Hoffman.
