Donald Wallace Hoffses

Donald Wallace Hoffses March 14, 1925 February 1, 2015 Don's paternal ancestor was Matthias Hoffses, a German immigrant who settled in the Waldoboro, Maine area in 1752. The blood line goes as follows: Matthias had 12 children. The 10th child was Andrew who had 9 children. The 2nd child was Matthias who had 7 children. The 2nd child was Andrew J. Who had 4 children. The 1st child was William M. Who had 5 children. The 5th child was William Eustis Russell who had 2 children. The 2nd was Donald Wallace . Donald Hoffses - a life filled with many interests, adventures and accomplishments. He was a son, a brother, a husband, a father, a grandfather and a great grandfather. Don was born March 14, 1925 at home on Atlantic Street on Munjoy Hill, Portland, Maine, the second son of William Eustis Russell Hoffses and Winifred Irene Seavey Hoffses. The family moved from Munjoy Hill to Gilman Street in the West End section of Portland, which was near the Engine 6 and Ladder 6 Fire Station, where he spent many hours drawing pictures of the apparatus. He became sort of a mascot to the firemen, who paid a lot of attention to this little boy who was to become a fire buff in the future. The family next moved to East Deering on Presumpscot Street, where he attended elementary school. Young Donald was very involved in the soap box derby races every year that were sponsored by the Portland Press Herald and the Chevrolet dealers. With his father's help, he would design his car to specifications according to the rules. Then, he would build it, paint and letter it, and race it. These races were well attended and very popular at the time. He was involved in a disputed race, where he was called the winner, then tied for second and finally ended up as third when someone released the lever holding his car and it went down the ramp without him in it. The controversy at the time was instrumental in the canceling of the races for many years. The family's final move was to Whitney Avenue in the Libby town area. He attended Lincoln Junior and Deering High Schools. He graduated from Deering in the class of 1943. Because he was in Casablanca serving on a merchant ship at graduation time he received his diploma with the class of 1944 along with five other servicemen, who were also serving their country at the time of their actual graduation ceremonies. He is listed as a member of both classes and happily attends their class reunions. A veteran of World War 2, he graduated from Kings Point, the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in New York as a Lieutenant and navigator. He sailed in the North and South Atlantic, the Arctic and the Indian Oceans, and the Mediterranean Sea. Some of the ports of call and the cargoes his ships carried were: Casablanca, Morocco with war supplies and food; Sicily, Palermo and Naples Italy with 1,000 pound bombs and 50 gallon drums of high octane gasoline; Glasgow, Scotland and Murmansk, Russia with railroad cars, trucks, boots, flour and sugar. Other ports of call were Cherbourg and Le Havre, France with steam locomotives and assorted war equipment. His ship was in the convoy on the famous Murmansk run where 97 merchant ships were torpedoed and sunk and thousands of seamen were lost. He used to say his guardian angels had to work in shifts to keep him safe as ships blew up all around him. He was in Antwerp, Belgium when the war ended and he received his honorable discharge. He received special commendation from President Truman, which states that in Oct. 1943 while under attack in the harbor of Naples, Italy, he was ""Responsible for bringing an open ship's launch from a shore landing to the ship's anchorage under heavy enemy fire without any casualties."" After the war, having passed the U.S. Coastguard examination, he shipped out as third mate for waterman steamship line and later as second mate and first mate for the socony vacuum line. For a short time, he worked on a special assignment basis as a traffic survey engineer for the Portland Police Dept, specializing in high-accident frequency intersections, traffic flow, and traffic aids. One of his 24 hour surveys and recommendations led to the construction of Canco Road. His artistic side was evident in his venturing into the business world, creating signs and displays and forming his own small businesses - Hand Art Studios (silk screen work and small signs), Metropolitan Display ( which included making small wooden toys) and Sign Crafters (designing, constructing, and painting large signs for department stores and businesses). To augment his income while building his sign business, he worked at Sam's Superette on Munjoy Hill. Sam and his wife, Rosie, were well-known on Munjoy Hill as very hardworking and dedicated people, who never took a vacation or a day off from work until Don came to work for them. After just a few weeks on the job, they trusted him to take over the store long enough for them to have a night off, then a weekend off and finally longer. They were sorry to see him leave when he landed a full time job at Rines Brothers Department Store. At Rines Bros., he was display director and store operations manager. While there, he enjoyed the friendly rivalry between the different stores on Congress Street competing for the best window displays and interior décor, especially at Christmas time, fire prevention week, and other special occasions. When Maine's first TV station, WPMT (a UHF network), was under construction here at the Columbia Hotel in Portland, Don met with Mr. Gildersleeve about 3 weeks before they were to go on the air. During the conversation Don asked about the sets they would be using for their live broadcasts and to his astonishment he was hired on the spot to construct them. He built them in the cellar of his house at 54 Raymond Road on 4x8 sheets held together with clamps. He built a general store set with pot bellied stove, a weather set, inside a cabin, a set for Hiram Hoe-Handle and one for Hezzie Q. Snow (local characters to be portrayed. ) Opening night Gildersleeve let him stay as long as he kept out of camera range. It was soon evident they needed help and the director told Don to grab a light and move it here and there as the broadcast continued. They had 6 lights and only one camera and in 15 minutes they had to go from set to set to set in seconds. Needless to say, he loved it and went to work for them in the evenings after working at Rines Bros. There, he continued to design and build the sets for the live productions. He learned lighting and camera operations and finally directing shows like Schooner Cartooner, the Duke Knight show, the Ken Mackenzie show as well as the ones mentioned before. This station closed when the network stations - CBS, NBC and ABC opened up. When the station closed the Maine Savings Bank chose Don to pick up loose ends and get rid of equipment. Mr. Hoy, the owner, then hired Don to come to Lewiston and work for him at WLAM. Don stayed for 2 or 3 months then returned to Portland. In 1955, he went to work at WGAN-TV (now WGME). he did scenery, was a director, producer/director, program director and production manager over the years. He directed the local news, weather and sports, and many special telecasts including the first live coverage of the State of Maine Class l schoolboy basketball championship from the Portland Exposition Building. Other programs included, ""On the Spot,"" ""The Mighty Ninety Show,"" and ""The Binnie Ellis Show."" He directed the Lloyd Knight Show, Dave Astor and the Dave Astor Show special with Jordan Meats. He worked on the Gary Merrill and Bette Davis appearance on person to person with Edward R Murrow. He did the world premiere of ""The Virgin Queen"" with Bette Davis at the Strand Theater and many other special events, including the interviews with presidents Kennedy and Nixon when they were in Portland campaigning. He received a special award for ""24 hours"" an award winning documentary film depicting a day in the life of the Portland Fire Dept. After a few years, he was also named production manager and producer in addition to his directing duties. While working in television, Don also indulged in his passion and life long interest in the fire department which started when he was a small boy. Remembering the horrible fires in the 40's that caused so much destruction in Maine, he decided to equip steel trailers with equipment and hoses and sell them to small towns. Figuring most volunteer fire fighters had pick up trucks with trailer hitches, these trailers would provide the first volunteer to arrive to get something to the fire immediately. In addition to offering them to towns, he designed and delivered 10 fire fighting trailers to the New Hampshire forest and recreation department built to specifications, the trailers were part of a firefighting unit network in the Granite State's far northerly unorganized towns. These trailers pumped 275 gallons a minute through two - and-a-half inch line and carried 150 feet of booster line. As this business grew in 1963, Don decided to leave TV and buy into Eastern Fire Equipment Co., where he worked until deciding to form his own company with two partners by combining the fire and safety equipment with the fire trailer line and name it Admiral Fire and Safety, Inc. He sold alarm systems to homes, restaurants and other businesses as well as equipment to fire and police departments. He eventually bought out his partners and became sole owner of the business. His next endeavor was to build small fire trucks which he designed to specifications for small towns who could not afford the very expensive trucks built by American Lafrance and Mack Firetruck Companies. He would buy a pick-up- truck, meet with the fire chief of the town, and design a truck with the particular specifications that the chief and firemen wanted. He would then supervise the building of his design by Tri-tank Engineering, of Westbrook. After having his creations painted and lettered, he would deliver them to grateful towns throughout Maine. Some of the towns he built trucks for are: Cape Elizabeth, North Yarmouth, Cherryfield, Vinalhaven, Casco, Massasoit and Jay. Some of these trucks can still be seen in parades. He also designed the admiral mini-pumper, the avenger, the star fire, the fire rescue unit and the all purpose front end pumper. See Portland Press Herald article June 3, 1985 for more details and quotes from Don. He sold his business in 1987 to Anton Enterprises, now Anton's Admiral Fire of Scarborough, Maine. While at Rines Brothers and the television stations, Don was always very involved with fire prevention working with different chiefs on fire prevention week preparations. In 1955, Don met with then chief Carl P. Johnson and Capt. Woodbury H. Ridley, of the fire prevention bureau, and the three men founded Box 61 Club Portland Fire Buffs. The Fire Buffs at that time were a hands on group that assisted the firemen at multiple alarm blazes doing such things as dragging hoses, clearing debris, etc. They had to provide their own fire coats, boots and helmets and buy their own insurance policies. They wore red helmets to identify themselves from the professional firemen. The club had many members from all walks of life from businessmen, salesmen, clerks, lawyers and teachers. When it was no longer possible to have the volunteers working alongside the firemen, because of union restrictions and insurance liabilities, Don decided the club should operate a mobile canteen van and bring it to multiple alarm fires to provide sustenance and warmth to the hardworking firemen who are usually at the fires for many, many hours after the fire has been extinguished. He and Jim Harmon remodeled an old bakery van into a kitchen. With a forward section which had a seating area and storage to keep stuffed animals and blankets for fire victims. Whenever a multiple alarm would come in the box 61 members would show up to serve coffee, hot soup, hot chocolate and donuts. In the hot weather they were there with water, lemonade, Gatorade, and soda no matter what time or what weather conditions. Don was the first president of the club and was eventually made an honorary member as the founder and for his dedicated service. The fire buffs meet at the fire museum on Spring Street and have a room on the second floor dedicated to the organization. Don was concerned that the City of Portland does very little to publicize and acknowledge the many historical events that happened in the past. In 1992, he did some research, designed some historical signs to depict them, had them built and convinced a local business man (Chet Jordan of Jordan's Meats) to sponsor them. He had a student at the Regional Vocational Center construct them and a student artist painted three of them and Don, himself, painted the others. Don wrote a short description with each painting explaining the event that took place in the painting. The public works of the City of Portland installed the signs at various locations throughout the city. The mayor at the time officiated at the unveiling of the first sign at Jordan's Meats building on India Street. Some of the signs are still standing. One was stolen. See Portland Press Herald for newspaper coverage. June 26, 1992. Don was appointed to the Maine Highway Safety Committee in 1967 and served for many years under 4 governors. He was a member of the truck safety subcommittee, the public information subcommittee and was the chairman of the sign subcommittee. He was a member of Woodfords Congregational Church for 58 years. He was on the administrative board and several committees, as well as, serving as an usher for many years. Don was a member of the 470 Railway Club, the Garden Railway Club, the local chapter of AARP, and at one time was in the pit crew at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway. Always interested in politics and government, he worked on many campaigns for various candidates and was a poll warden for many years. A member of his neighborhood association, he was successful at having a caution light installed on Brighton Avenue. He was very involved in campaigning for enlarged culverts and the widening of the Capisic Brook Dam to alleviate the flooding situation at Volette Hill. There are news broadcasts on tape about the bridge he built in his backyard over the brook and his theory about the need for these improvements. Don was the only lay person from the public chosen to be on project impact task force. The city manager, fire chief, police chief, etc. worked on possible disaster problems and remedies, including a city-wide emergency evacuation plan. His hobbies were oil and acrylic painting, vegetable gardening, amateur science, writing and submitting articles about his theories on gravity, vitamins and anti-oxidents ( like lycopene in tomatoes), writing letters to the editor on various subjects, submitting ideas like one to Lee Iacocca with a design or a modern car and one to bath iron works for a super hydroliner (before the ""cat"" was developed). One interesting accomplishment was the bridge he built by himself from his backyard across the brook that runs into Capisic Pond over to a lot of land which he used for his vegetable garden. The bridge is over 12 feet high and 48 feet long and has withstood over 15 years of storms including hurricane bob and the big storm of 1993 where many bridges were washed away. Most nights after work he would buy a few supplies he needed and work till dark. Of course in the winter and inclement weather work would stop so it is hard to tell how many work days it actually took. Family and friends came to dedicate the bridge - named the Donnybook Bridge - and it turned out to be exactly one year from the day he started, 1989-1990 Don's friend from childhood (Dave Thomas) built a flatbottom boat of which he was rightfully very proud. This boat could be seen on Little Sebago Lake for many years pulling skiers and cruising about. When Dave was buying a bigger boat he gave his old boat to Jean and Don to enjoy. Don referred to the boat as the shark boat because of the shape and at Jean's suggestion, Don sketched and they painted shark teeth and eye on each side. A year or so after the ""shark"" was launched it became well known in the area Don had his camp. One day a small child visiting from Massachusetts became lost in Windham and when the sheriff asked him where his family was staying he responded, ""I don't know where but there is a shark boat next door."" the sheriff knew exactly where to bring him. Don was gifted with a wonderful sense of humor and loved to tell stories about the adventures of his life. He almost always saw something that happened in his daily life that one could get a laugh out of. He especially loved to laugh at himself and a lot of his stories find him as the butt of the joke. When telling the story he would get laughing and soon had others laughing both at the story and also at him laughing. Stories from his childhood include jelly beans to his grandmother with the black and red removed, dropping a jar of pennies when trying to impress his ""girl"". His peanut business, selling his wooden flowers door to door. (drawing a pattern, transferring it to a piece of wood, cutting it out with a jigsaw, painting it, drilling a hole in it for a lollipop stick to put in potted plant or garden), and made little trellises to sell door to door. Stories from his trips to N.Y. for Rines to buy display material and observing windows of Macy's and Gimbel's include: sending little old lady on a trip to Brooklyn when where she was going was the next stop, making Jean sit up all night on the train trip instead of the roomette that he always had when he went alone, walking fifth avenue on a below zero night and when Jean's heels began bleeding carried her piggyback to the hotel instead of getting a cab, leaving Jean in a restaurant and going outside to wait for her to finish eating then going to a hot dog stand. Always stopped at any hot dog stand while there to avoid having to go into restaurants. Other stories from Rines Bros. days are swivel hips and the sandwich man, rudolph the red nosed reindeer whose operator and 'voice' had a mini-breakdown on the job, Stories from high school: shutting Mr. Auchanbaugh in the closet and letting him out at the end of the period. ""aw, come on boys.""; ""right here in the bottom drawer""; the teacher's desk in flames and evacuating the school, throwing the ""body"" out of the tree, grabbing a passenger's hand that was dangling out of the bus window. Adventures from the service: funny stories about life as a cadet at Kings Point like eating square meals, having to walk through puddles, water over the doorways, impersonating another cadet who was a foot taller and much heavier; making admiral stripes to slip over his uniform sleeves, Taking the twins to church, attending a full dress formal dinner and sitting at the commander's table he chased a melon ball around the plates, the run-in with general George S. Patton over getting an Italian rifle as a war souvenir; the story of the naked bird, throwing paint chips into the wind which blew back into the coffee cups of the crew on break, beans and beer, ship running aground and the drunken captain and others. Stories from TV about the commercial with the egg, the commercial with the personality who had had a few too many glasses of wine at dinner. Dealing with novices during the early days of TV with one fixed camera and having them disappear from sight in the middle of a speech when they would bend down to get something or leave the area. Having to get under Bette Davis's full-skirted hostess gown to adjust her battery pack. There were other stories he liked to tell about goofs he made like knocking over an entire display of beer cans, hitting the candy rack at the check-out, taking an orange from the bottom of a display and most of the oranges fell to the floor along with a display of horse chestnuts, the young girl who paid for his popcorn to move him along in line because his exchange with the clerk was holding everyone up. Leaving Jean at the flower show an hour and a half while he went out to MacDonald's for a cheeseburger and then went home and watched TV, the horrible day when car starter failed, he spilled a gallon of windshield washer on the back seat floor, Dumped a can of green beans on the kitchen floor, left the car lights on and the battery died. Don was predeceased by his parents and his brother, William. Don is survived by his wife of 66 years, Jean; their 3 children: Diane Parker, of Columbus, Ohio; Christine Meehan, of Standish and her husband, Steven; and Daniel R. Hoffses, of Scarborough, and his wife, Helen; his grandchildren, Kathryn Meehan McCarthy, Gregory Meehan, Lucas and Natalie Hoffses, Scott and Travis Edwards, and Meghann Thacker, and 9 great grandchildren. A reception and celebration of Don's life will be held on Saturday, Feb. 7, at 11 a.m. in Memorial Hall at Woodfords Congregational Church, 202 Woodfords St., Portland, Maine. In lieu of flowers donations in Don's name may be sent to Portland, Fire Museum P.O. Box 1743 Portland, Maine 04104

Donald Wallace Hoffses

March 14, 1925 - February 1, 2015

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