Rosemary Birky Hoffmann

1943 - 2025

Rosemary Birky Hoffmann

August 25, 1943 - January 11, 2025

Chapel Hill, North Carolina - Rosemary B. Hoffmann passed away peacefully at Carol Woods Retirement Community on January 11, 2025.

Rosemary was born to Margaret May Jones Hoffmann and Arnold E. Hoffmann in Youngstown, Ohio on August 25, 1943. When she was six years old, her family moved to Raleigh, NC where her father took a position as State Supervisor of Music and her mother began a career as a children's book author and organist.

After graduating with honors from Needham Broughton High School, Rosemary attended the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a BA in English and German. She spent her Junior year abroad in Heidelberg, Germany, and following graduation spent a year in Vienna on a Fulbright Scholarship. She returned to the US in 1966 and went on to receive an MA & a PhD in German Literature at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

She then returned to Germany and for four years worked for the University of Maryland Global College as a Lecturer in German. In 1976 she joined the administration full-time with shared responsibility for UMGC's entire program at 25-28 US military bases, mainly in the Mediterranean area.

In 1984, Rosemary left Germany and enrolled in Architecture at the College of Design at NC state University. During that time, she took a summer architectural studio in Aegina, Greece. After completion of her degree, she joined GGA architects to begin her three-year architectural apprenticeship; unfortunately, this was a time when the economy was tanking and architectural firms were closing daily. By chance in 1992, she learned that a position for hiring stateside faculty to teach in Europe and Asia was open at UMGC in Maryland. She returned there where she remained until her retirement in 2012. But four years later, in 2016, UMGC called again, and Rosemary worked part-time archiving material from the program in Europe, after which she was granted Administrator Emerita status.

In 2020 she returned to Chapel Hill NC and shortly afterwards moved into Carol Woods Retirement Community. She immediately immersed herself in committee work, social events, bird watching, walking and croquet tournaments. Her love of music, nature, and community and social engagement may be attributed to her upbringing as the daughter of parents who were actively involved in music, civil rights and social issues through their membership in the Community United Church of Christ in Raleigh.

Having traveled extensively throughout her adult life, she had friends all over the world who were her family. She kept in touch and visited regularly and was loved by many people who will dearly miss her.

She is survived by her brother Ted Hoffmann and his wife Mary Henri, several nieces and nephews in the Carolinas, and her sister-in-law Linda Streyer, and family in Heidelberg, Germany.

Rosemary wholeheartedly supported many charities, human rights organizations, and the arts. Memorial gifts are gratefully appreciated.