Ellen Hull Hoke

Ellen Hull Neff Hoke

Ellen Hull Neff Hoke died Saturday, April 25, 2009, in Charlottesville. She was 90.

Hull was born January 1, 1919, in the Southwest Virginia town of Chilhowie, daughter of Bill and Gladys Neff.

She grew up in Abingdon, graduated from Hollins College and earned a master's degree from the University of North Carolina, where she met her husband, Robert Lee Hoke of Williamsburg.

After Bob's service in World War II, the couple returned to Williamsburg, where he was director of public relations for Colonial Williamsburg and Hull was active in community affairs, including serving on the Williamsburg-James City County School Board.

After the 1954 Brown v. Board ruling of the United States Supreme Court, Hull's outspoken support of desegregation led to her ouster from the school board. The controversy continued, and she was reinstated after several months. At the time, her father, William N. Neff of Abingdon, a former delegate and state senator, was president of the Virginia Board of Education where he exerted a moderating influence during the period of Massive Resistance. Shortly thereafter, Bob took a job in New York City as head of public relations for Laurence Rockefeller's enterprises and the family moved to Cranbury, New Jersey. Bob died in 1966.

She worked for Princeton University as librarian of the Office for Population Research and as assistant dean of the faculty when the school became coeducational. She retired as vice president of the Advanced Data Management unit of Aeronautical Research Associates of Princeton. She returned to Virginia in 1999, living at the Colonnades in Charlottesville with her sister, Gene Paterson. She was a member of St. Paul's Memorial Church and was an active supporter of the Miller Center at the University of Virginia.

She is survived by her sister, Gene N. Paterson of Charlottesville; three sons, William N. Hoke of Manhattan Beach, California, R. Kremer Hoke of Kingston, New Jersey, and John Hoke of Richmond, Virginia; four grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

The family will hold a memorial gathering at the Colonnades from 3 until 5 p.m. Tuesday, April 28, 2009.

A funeral will be held at St. Paul's Memorial Church in Charlottesville, 11 a.m. Wednesday. April 29, 2009.

A graveside service will be at Knollkreg Cemetery in Abingdon, 11 a.m. Thursday, April 30, 2009.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Neff Family Scholarship, Emory and Henry College, Emory, VA 24327.


This obituary was originally published in the Daily Progress.