Jacqueline Hoefer

Jacqueline Hoefer A prominent supporter of the arts in San Francisco, a former businesswoman, and a lifelong poet and scholar, died on Thursday, July 6, at the University of California Medical Center. She was 83. Her death was caused by complications from a fall she suffered in her home. Born and raised in Columbia, Illinois, Mrs. Hoefer attended Northwestern University and was graduated from the University of Illinois with honors and elected a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She received a Ph.D. in American literature from Washington University, St. Louis, MO, and in the early 1960s taught at the University of California, Berkeley, and at San Francisco State. In 1967 she joined her husband Peter Hoefer in starting Hoefer Scientific Instruments, a San Francisco company designing and manufacturing instruments for biochemical research. After Peter Hoefer's death in 1987, she carried on as chief executive officer. Long involved in cultural and philanthropic endeavors, Mrs. Hoefer was an active member of various boards, both in San Francisco and in Sante Fe, NM. Among them were the San Francisco Symphony, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. A lifelong Democrat, she was a strong supporter of various liberal causes and community services. Jacqueline Hoefer's publications include Imagining the Garden (1981), a book of poems; Weather Songs, three poems set to music by Lanham Deal; and critical essays on contemporary writers, among them, Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter and Norman Mailer. In 2003, she published A More Abundant Life: New Deal Artists and Public Art In New Mexico. Her most recent book (2004) was Night in a White Wood, New and Selected Poems. She was an editor for Sunstone Press, Santa Fe, NM. She is survived by her longtime friend and assistant Ann Chau; and by a niece and nephews. A memorial service is to be scheduled at a later date. Memorial gifts may be made to the San Francisco Symphony, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, or the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.