Jack Hoffman
March 24, 1933 ~ March 21, 2022
Jack Hoffman, age 88, formerly of Horicon, Wisconsin, passed away March 21, 2022, in Mount Vernon Iowa. Interment will be later at Rose Lawn Cemetery in Moline, Illinois. As requested by Jack, there will be no visitation or funeral service. Stewart Baxter Funeral & Memorial Services is assisting the family with arrangements.
Jack was born March 24, 1933, in Davenport Iowa, the son of John and Edith (Hauser) Hoffman of Moline. He graduated from Moline High School in 1951. He attended Iowa State College and graduated in 1956. He received a Military commission of 2nd lieutenant in the Signal Corps and served in the Army Reserves for 6 years. He married Carita Zenor on March 24, 1956, in Ames, Iowa.
Jack started working at age 8 collecting magazines and newspapers for WWII scrap drives. At 12, he started working at a local grocery store and worked there for several years. He was a Boy Scout and served as a Scout Camp Quarter Master for several summers. During his high school years, he worked for the Moline Whizzer Motor Bike Dealer as a mechanic.
Jack started at John Deere Spreader Works in East Moline as an engineer in June of 1956. In April of 1967, he transferred to John Deere Horicon Works as a Division Engineer for Lawn and Garden Equipment. During the next 20 years in was involved in a variety of products including lawn and garden tractors, snowmobiles, chain saws, bicycles, and other related products. He was a member of the American Society of Agricultural Engineers and the Society of Automotive Engineers.
Jack had a lifelong interest in all forms of mechanical transportation especially automobiles. He was a member of the following car clubs: Antique Automobile Club of America, Lincoln Owner's Club, Cadillac LaSalle Club, Velie Owner's Club, Auburn Cord Duesenberg Club, and the Classic Car Club of America. Jack served three terms on the National CCCA Board of Directors. These clubs allowed him to travel to all 50 states and overseas. He especially enjoyed driving his 1941 Cadillac convertible coupe on many of the weeklong tours. His antique car specialty was restoring Cadillac's from the 1940's.
In 1975, Jack purchased a former Chrysler/Plymouth building in Horicon which for the next 39 years was used for his antique car hobby, his collections of antique coin operated machines and auto and oil memorabilia.
Jack is survived by his children Diane (Tim) Legore of Mount Vernon, Iowa, Jack (Julie) of Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, Susan (Leigh) Jenison of Sussex. Wisconsin, and Scott (Cathy) of West Bend, Wisconsin. He is survived by a brother David (Loretta) of Moline, Illinois. Jack is also survived by ten grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by his parents; his wife, Carita; his brother, Alan; and one granddaughter, Lena Jenison.
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We are deeply sorry for your loss ~ Stewart Baxter Funeral & Memorial Services – Mount Vernon
We are so very sorry for your loss, we’ve met many times at various car events, always enjoyed visiting with he and Corita. Dave and Marlese Lindsay, Manawa WI.
Jack was a beautiful man—a gentle man from the old school. I will cherish his memory and his friendship.
Jack would sneak into my shop as often as he could, and chat with us while we built our race cars. Shared so many stories. He was also my next door neighbor, and we chatted often. A true gentleman. A terri$ux husband to Corita and a friend that already miss.
Until Jack met Carita, his world was automobiles, then she came first with his cars close behind. As a high school friend he became a lasting, memorable friend right up to our 70th class reunion. Telephone calls to his “brothers” of Moline High helped him through his day, when he wasn’t thinking of his Carita! Soft pedal on life & friends….hot pedal on anything automotive! We’ll all miss you.
Jack would always go out of his way to answer technical questions or offer his help to solve care problems. Both he and Carita were very generous hosts with Christmas parties and his auto collection building. He will be greatly missed by the Wieland family. Tom Wieland C.L.C. C.C.C.A.
Wishing you peace to bring comfort, courage to face the days ahead and loving memories to forever hold in your hearts.
Jack was a generous and gracious man who will be missed. He was a gentleman who was respected by all.
I wanted to express my sympathy to Jack’s family. I first met him in the summer of 1966 when I was a summer engineering intern in the Spreader Works’s product engineering department.
Jack was a friend of my dad Loren Spencer back in his Moline days and he befriended me and my wife Lori when we transferred to the Horicon WI factory in 1981. Lori and I send our condolences out to Jack’s entire family. He always had a smile on his face when we walked by his desk or talked about a current or past car project!
So sorry to hear of Jack’s passing. He was a remarkable guy. We met soon after I transferred to Horicon in 1977. Over my 8 years there we had a great working & social relationship, including some memorable snowmobile excursions. May he Rest In Peace. Bob Noth.
Although meeting Jack as we began Junior High School at Calvin Coolidge in Moline in September 1945, that event had been presaged by Jack’s dad, John Hoffman and my father, Sidney Blitt having met at the Moline YMCA, in the 1920s where both resided in bachelor rooms. Jack and I discovered many areas of mutual interest: girls, cars, engineering and prankstering. Details cannot be told. I was fortunate to re-connect with Jack throughout and after college, he at Iowa State and me at Illinois, and at high school reunions, and a few times at each other’s homes in our later years. My memories of Jack are long, and they are with sincere personal loss. I met only one of Jack’s children, but knew he had a large family of which he was very proud. To the family I say you got some seriously good genes. Joe Blitt Fort Myers, Florida
Jack and Corita were good friends during the eight years we were in Horicon together. Jack helped with the mechanical restoration of our 66′ mustang. When it returned from the painter he said “you had it painted resale red.” Roger Curry
I enjoyed visiting with Jack in Mt Vernon< He was a very interesting man with a multitude of life experiences. My sincere condolences to his family.