James Edwin Hoffman, 86, passed away Dec. 26, 2022, in Fort Mill, South Carolina. He was the son of the late Edwin Charles Hoffman and the late Frances Josephine (McGraw) Hoffman.
Jim grew up in Cumberland, Maryland, where he excelled on the football and basketball teams at Allegany High School, and met and dated Nancy Ann Wilson. Jim and Nancy married in 1957; they celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary in August.
After high school, Jim attended the University of Richmond, where he played football and graduated in 1958 with a Bachelor of Arts in political science. Through the ROTC program, Jim was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army infantry and posted to Fort Benning, Georgia, where he attended the Basic Infantry Officer Course and Airborne and Ranger School. Jim was then assigned to the 3rd Armored Rifle Battalion 50th Infantry in Germany, where he and his young family lived for over three years.
Returning to the United States in 1962, Jim completed the Infantry Officers Career Course at Fort Benning. He then joined the 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and served as a Special Forces advisor in Vietnam in 1964.
In April 1965, Jim was appointed a Special Agent of the FBI, where he worked proudly for 22 years. He served in Detroit, Newark, and the Red Bank Resident Agency, and was a supervisor in the latter two posts. He was also a SWAT team member and firearms instructor.
After retiring from the FBI in 1987, Jim was active in the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI. He then worked briefly at The New York Times before accepting a position as security manager at Merck and Co. Inc. in Rahway, retiring from Merck in 1994.
Jim and his wife Nancy were residents of Fair Haven for over 50 years and lived in Monmouth County for more than 55 years before recently moving to South Carolina.
Jim was a longtime parishioner of the Church of the Nativity in Fair Haven. He loved his family, travel, gardening (he and his wife maintained a Fair Haven community garden plot continuously for more than 40 years), sports (Jim completed many marathons, all over the country), music (he was at one time a season ticket holder to the Metropolitan Opera), and books (he served as president of the Fair Haven Public library for many years). He was a faithful fan at his sons’ and then his grandchildren’s football, soccer, basketball or baseball games.
Perhaps most of all, Jim loved conversing with family and friends – preferably accompanied by a good meal and decent wine. And you did not have to be immediate family or a close friend for Jim to greet you warmly, ask about you and yours, and be genuinely interested in what you had to say. Jim had a real interest in and concern for other people.
Jim was predeceased in death his sister Elizabeth Jean Hess. He is survived by his wife of 65 years, Nancy Ann (Wilson) Hoffman; sons, Kyle (Deborah) Hoffman of San Diego, California, and Kevin (Kathleen) Hoffman, of Fort Mill, South Carolina; two grandchildren, Lindsey Hoffman (Greg Beninato) and Connor Hoffman (Kelsea Studer); his brother-in-law John E. Hess; his sister Jean’s children, John (Tracey) Hess, Ursula Sauter (Marc), and James (Erin) Hess.
Funeral arrangements are pending. In lieu of flowers please consider donations to the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI Foundation at socxfbi.org/SFSA or to the Fair Haven Public Library, 748 River Road, Fair Haven, NJ 07704, in memory of James E. Hoffman.
The article originally appeared in the January 12 – 18, 2023 print edition of The Two River Times.
