Renae Hoffmann Walker

Renae Hoffmann Walker wanted to make a difference in her community and in the lives she touched. She hopes she has done that. Walker died November 12, 2023.

A service livestream will be available on Good Shepherd Lutheran Church's YouTube page available here:        https://www.youtube.com/@GoodShepherdLutheranChurch

Her funeral will be held at 10:30 AM, Friday, Nov. 17, at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 106 Osage Ave, Bismarck. Visitation will be held from 5:00-7:00 PM, Thursday, Nov. 16, at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church. A prayer service will begin at 6:00 PM. Burial will be held at 1:00 PM at the North Dakota Veterans Cemetery, Mandan.

Renae Hoffmann was born to Pete and Judy Hoffmann on May 12, 1959, along with her sisters Teri (Halverson) and Dawn (Brady). She was born and raised in Bismarck and attended both public and private schools here. She graduated from St. Mary’s Central High School in 1977; Mary College in 1980. She received her master’s degree in Management from the University of Mary in 2002.

Renae’s first professional job was at KFYR-TV, where she was a news reporter from 1979-1988. She married her friend and co-worker, television news photographer, Dwayne Walker, on October 19, 1985.

In February of 1988, Renae Hoffmann Walker became the Director of Communications and Research for the North Dakota Department of Agriculture. In November of that same year, she landed a job as Community Relations Director for Bismarck Public Schools, a position she held for 32 years. In retirement, Walker worked part time for the North Dakota Petroleum Council as Events Coordinator for a year, after which she worked part time at United Way.

Walker served her community in many ways through her involvement with the local Advertising Federation, Bismarck-Mandan Development Association, Business and Professional Women, Chamber of Commerce, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, International Association of Business Communicators, Leadership Bismarck-Mandan, Toastmasters, United Way, Dakota Media Access, BPS Foundation, Ronald McDonald House, and Bridging the Dental Gap. She received nine television news awards, the prestigious Gold Medallion from the National School Public Relations Association, and the titles of BPW Young Careerist of the Year (1994-95) and Outstanding Alumnus of the Bismarck-Mandan Leadership Alumni Association (2014) and was an accomplished public speaker and writer for local, state and national organizations and publications.

But Walker felt her most fulfilling role was as a mom to her daughter, Ariana (Levi) Kinnischtzke, Bismarck, and her two stepchildren, Ryan (Kara) Walker, MN and Heidi Herrington, Bismarck, as well as being a grandmother to Damon and Cameron Kinnischtzke, Halaina Walker, and Jimmy and Ben Herrington. She will miss them all very much. She will also miss family gatherings with them, her sisters, nieces, nephew and their children. She is preceded in death by her father, mother, and grandparents.

Memorials can be given in her name to the Bismarck Public Schools Foundation, Missouri Slope Areawide United Way, or Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, of which she was a member for many years. She has gone to sing in God’s choir of angels.