Educator taught in Fostoria area

6/16/2004

BASCOM, Ohio - Paula L. Hoffman, a longtime Fostoria-area school teacher, died of natural causes Sunday in her home here. She was 65.

"As a teacher, she loved all the children equally. As a mother, she was the best," Mrs. Hoffman's son, Robert, said.

A 1956 New Riegel High valedictorian and an Ohio University graduate, Mrs. Hoffman started her career in 1959, teaching the second grade at Hopewell-Loudon Elementary in Bascom.

After 14 years of teaching at the school, Mrs. Hoffman took about a 10-year break from her career to raise her children while substituting as a teacher for a number of area schools, Mr. Hoffman said.

About 1979, she went back to teaching full time. She taught at New Riegel schools until retiring in 1997.

Mrs. Hoffman taught Sunday school at Union United Church of Christ, Bascom, where she was a member.

Surviving are her husband of 42 years, Duane R. Hoffman; son, Robert Hoffman; daughters, Barbara Hoffman and Julia Hoffman; brother, Donald "Sonny" Fouts; sisters, Linda Slick, Delthia Tyson, and Judy Kauffman, and four grandchildren.

There was no visitation. Services were private. Arrangements were handled by the Mann-Hare Funeral Home, Fostoria. The family suggests tributes to a charity of the donor's choice.