Evelyn H. Hoff

Evelyn H. Hoff, born Evelyn May Hellerman in Newark, New Jersey on July 23rd, 1925, died on the 13th of April 2025 at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, where she had spent the last days of her life surrounded by loved ones.

The daughter of Samuel and Francis Hellerman (née Birkhahn), Evelyn grew up alongside her older sister Jacqueline and their two younger brothers, Joseph and Robert, on Linden Blvd. in Brooklyn, New York. Many a delightful summer’s day melted away at the Hellerman Family bungalow in Neponsit, two blocks from Rockaway Beach, a family tradition that Evelyn and her siblings eventually would share with their spouses and children, too.

“As bank rep. or otherwise, Evelyn draws interest” — these words, printed next to a photograph of a teenaged Evelyn in a Samuel J. Tilden High School yearbook, ring as true in 2025 as they must have when they were written more than 80 years ago. So too does her own handwritten note on that same high school relic — “Lots of the best of everything” — echo through the decades, all the way to her signature “Best Love” sign-offs on birthday cards to her grandchildren — all a reflection of the tremendously positive attitude that colored her life and that of those around her.

Evelyn graduated from Tilden High School in January 1943. With the world at war, she enrolled in Brooklyn College, commuting to her classes by trolley. After a year, she transferred to New York University, where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing at the School of Retailing. With a dashing sense of style that drew remarks to her final days, Evelyn “wanted to become a buyer for a department store.” Instead, with the influx of veterans returning home from war and the fact that the family business needed a secretary, Evelyn got “stuck” (her words) working at S. Hellerman & Sons, where she would work until the eve of motherhood.

Evelyn met Herbert Hoff, the man she would marry, at Camp Nee-Wah, she a Senior Camper and he and his friends apprentice potato peelers with the kitchen staff. After graduating NYU in the same class, they married in 1947 at the grand Hotel St. George in Brooklyn, known for its large indoor swimming pool, which Evelyn, an avid swimmer, frequented.

As Evelyn reflected years later, “We married and started life together. It was very wonderful, and . . . we’ve been having fun ever since.” After honeymooning in Bermuda, the couple made their first home in the bungalow in Neponsit. Early in their marriage, Herb, who had aspired to become a physician, was “stuck” in Sam’s rag business too. After moving to an apartment on Yellowstone Boulevard in Forest Hills, they welcomed their first two children, Michael and Patty, into the world. In 1955 they moved to a new split level in Bayside. Terry was born in October of that year.

In 1960, with Herb now working with his father, Ralph, along with Uncle Hy and Uncle Maurice, at the family business, Beaver Cloth Cutting Machines, Herb and Ev embarked on the trip of a lifetime. In the spring of that year, they handed temporary custody of Michael and Patty to Aunt Jackie and Uncle George. Then they dropped Terry off with Aunt Claire and Uncle Maurice and set out on a round-the-world trip. Carrying little more than a Beaver JRH model cloth cutting machine, they managed to see some of the world’s great sights while forging business ties for Beaver across Asia, the Middle East and Europe. Among the highlights were visiting the Pyramids in Egypt and then, after flying to Jordan and visiting the Western Wall, crossing into Israel via Jerusalem’s Mandelbaum Gate. In a May 7th letter to Jackie written on stationery from the Dan Hotel in Tel Aviv, Evelyn described herself teary-eyed, “squealing with Joy Pride and emotion” from seeing for herself “the absolute wonders of a world (country that is a world in itself)”; “I’m the proudest Jew!!!”

As the 1960s drew to a close, the opportunities to expand Beaver’s manufacturing business brought Ev and Herb, lifelong city dwellers, to upstate New York. Living in a house on Valley View Road around the block from Aunt Claire and Uncle Maurice, Ev and Herb would make Amsterdam their home for the better part of 40 years. Evelyn worked as an Employment Interviewer for the New York State Department of Labor. A self-described “very good interviewer,” Evelyn helped thousands of job applicants find jobs so that they could support their families.

As their three children grew up, married, and started families of their own, Ev and Herb delighted in their new role as grandparents to their grandchildren, who Ev called “my five kids.” Inspired perhaps by her summers at the bungalow, Ev spearheaded a new tradition with Herb, convening the growing Hoff clan for a week each summer, first renting homes on Sacandaga Lake and Friends Lake, and later, at Michael and Stephanie’ summer home on Martha’s Vineyard.

At the Fountains in Lake Worth, Florida, where she and Herb moved in 2002, Evelyn enjoyed living in the same building as Jackie and George. Later, when her brother Joe moved in nearby, Ev and Joe became regular Bridge partners. In 2018 Ev moved to the Ring House in Rockville, Maryland, a short distance from Pat and her husband Michael. Rain or shine, Pat would visit daily, and mother and daughter enjoyed the most wonderful relationship imaginable. Whether in person or over the phone or even via video chat, Ev had a way of bringing a smile to all of her family members, including her four great-grandchildren, Maya, Hallie, “Evie” (Evelyn’s namesake) and Johnny. She loved them all dearly. Never complaining even as her balance, and later her words, began to fail her, Evelyn had an incredible capacity to endure and to communicate her love for her family up to and including the last days of her life.

Evelyn will be remembered with love and fondness by her beloved brothers Joe “Georgie” Hellerman and Robert “Bobby” Hellerman (and his wife Cynthia); her sister-in-law Claire Greenfogel; her son Michael R. Hoff and his wife, Stephanie; her daughter Pat Hoff and her husband Michael Kurman; her son-in-law Michael D. Roth, husband of her late, beloved daughter Terry; her five grandchildren: Aaron Miles Kurman, Benjamin J. Roth (and his wife, Dana), Matthew R. Kurman, Samuel R. Hoff (and his wife, Elisabeth), and Carolyn “Kaki” Roth; her four great-grandchildren: Maya Jocelyn Roth, Hallie Tova Roth, Evelyn Sage “Evie” Hoff, and Jonathan Russell Hoff; her eight nieces and nephews: Leslie Schoenfeld, Ellen Weiss, Stephen Greenfogel, Vivian Greenfogel, Richard Hellerman, Alysa Hellerman, Laurie Israel, and Ariana Hellerman; her longtime caregiver, Denise Henry; and the rest of her extended family and friends.

A funeral service will be held at Mt. Moriah Cemetery in Fairview, New Jersey.

Among the organizations which Evelyn supported, and to which charitable contributions in her honor might be made, are Smile Train, St. Jude’s Hospital for Children, Doctors Without Borders, Planned Parenthood, and Hadassah.