Mary Colette Hoff

Mary Colette Hoff, mother, grandmother, friend, scholar, and teacher to many, and co-founder of the Goodenough Community, died peacefully on April 21 after a 15-month battle with cancer. She was lovingly attended by family and long-time friends who cared for her during her last weeks of life. Born and raised in New Jersey, Colette credited Girl Scouting and helping her father, who was paraplegic from service in WWII, with developing her leadership skills and a spiritual call to service at an early age.
In 1977, Colette was profoundly inspired by attending a week-long, personal development "Human Relations Laboratory" near Seattle. A friendship and teacher-student mentorship kindled and grew with John Hoff, one of the founders of the "Lab." The couple married on June 7, 1980. Their marriage was a partnership and source of learning and teaching for both.
John and Colette co-founded the Goodenough Community in 1981, as an ongoing resource of education and growth for attendees of "Lab" and others. Colette brought practical management skills to planning and implementing programs and events of the Goodenough Community and, since 2001, Sahale Learning Center, Tahuya, WA..
Colette earned a BS in Nutrition from Auburn University and later a M.Ed from the University of Puget Sound, with certification in Pastoral Care and Counseling. In 2000, she was ordained as a pastor by Convocation: A Church and Ministry, an interfaith church.
Colette was a coach to many and a trustworthy guide for relationships for individuals, marriages, and families. Colette embraced the idea that mental health isn't measured by the absence of problems but by the way one deals with them. Her journey at the side of her husband during his passing in 2018 deepened her wisdom and increased her comfort with death and dying. She approached her own final illness consciously and with wisdom and grace.
Colette is survived by her daughter Amie Aylward and son-in-law Colin Aylward; stepson Larry Hoff and daughter-in-law Rachel Hoff; stepson David Hoff, stepdaughter Laura Young and son-in-law Mike Young; and grandchildren Wiley and Juniper Aylward and Sophia and Liliana Hoff.
Donations in Colette's memory may be made to either the Goodenough Community or to Convocation, www.goodenough.org/donate. Or, in recognition of Colette's vocation of working with women and women's rights, to Planned Parenthood of Birmingham, AL, 1019 1st Ave. N, Birmingham, 35203. Colette lived and worked in Birmingham after graduation from Auburn. Unlike Washington, Alabama is unlikely to support women's right to choose in light of Supreme Court actions.