Hampshire College Mourns Founding Faculty Member Kenneth R. Hoffman
Ken Hoffman, professor emeritus of mathematics and natural history, died October 17, 2024, at age 83. Hoffman was among the core group of faculty hired at the College in the late 1960s and taught for 43 years, retiring in 2014.
He arrived at Hampshire after graduate studies at Harvard and a stint teaching at Talladega College, in Alabama. Hoffman fully embodied Hampshire’s motto, “Non satis scire”: to know is not enough.
Hoffman taught in what was first known as the School of Natural History and Mathematics, offering courses ranging from traditional Biological Science to multidisciplinary Mathematics and the Other Arts. He helped (occasionally math-phobic) students not just to understand the subject, but also to enjoy and appreciate its beauty.
Significantly, Hoffman contributed to a new way of teaching undergraduate calculus through his role with the Five College Calculus Project, which received national recognition and funding for their work. Collaboratively, they penned Calculus in Context, illustrating a pioneering curriculum that presents calculus as a language through which relationships and questions in science and mathematics can be explored.
He also loved taking students on trips on the Connecticut River and hikes throughout the Pioneer Valley, teaching natural history through the senses and experience. “In 1970, I took my natural history class on a field trip to the Quabbin Reservoir," he recalled. “When we got to the water’s edge, I turned around to make a natural history comment; however, my insight was lost on the students, who’d quickly taken off their clothes and jumped into the water. At that point, I realized that teaching at Hampshire was going to be quite a different experience.”
In addition to his regular faculty duties, Hoffman spent several summers teaching high school students in the Hampshire College Summer Studies in Mathematics program, combining both advanced studies in the field and sneaking in hikes and outdoor experiences for the students.
In retirement, he enjoyed spending more time with his wife, Jan (who predeceased him by a week), and his two grandchildren, while tending to the expanding collection of more than 200 trees he had planted over a 50-year period.
There will be a joint memorial for Ken and Jan Hoffman under the care of Mount Toby Friends Meeting in January; details will be announced in a few weeks.
Photo: Left to right — Professors Emeritus of Mathematics David C. Kelly and Ken Hoffman
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