B.J. Lange Hoffman

Bernard John Lange Hoffman passed away on May 7, 2019, having received the last rites of the Catholic Church and surrounded by his immediate family. His funeral will be held at Saints Peter & Paul Catholic Church, New Braunfels, TX at 10 am, Tuesday, May 14, preceded by a Rosary at 9:30 am. Lange (as he was always known) was born on April 24, 1934 in Texas, but spent the first few years of his life in Mexico City and the state of Chihuahua, where his father worked as a pilot, and later recalled his family secretly attending Mass during the anti-Catholic persecution of the period. After his family’s return to Texas in the late 1930s, he lived in various towns including Ballinger, a place he recalled with great fondness in his later years. He was an enthusiastic member of the Boy Scouts, arriving at the rank of Eagle Scout at a young age, and participated in scouting as a parent as well, ultimately being invited into the Boy Scouts’ Order of the Arrow in the early 1980s. The family finally settled in San Antonio, where Lange was a member of the German Club and the Order of the Alamo, and attended St. Anthony High School, the minor seminary of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. He attended the major seminary as well, but left before ordination after determining that he did not have a calling to the priesthood. He graduated from St. Mary’s Law School in 1960, and practiced corporate maritime law for various companies in Houston, Texas, including Zapata Corporation and Arethusa Pipeline Corporation. He was a parishioner at St. Michael parish in Houston. In 2006, at the age of 74, he completed much of the 500-mile pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella on foot, and was in training for a second effort in 2008 when he suffered cardiac arrest, which he survived unharmed to an amazing degree, although he suffered from minor disabilities for the rest of his life. He is preceded in death by his father, Kenneth Key Hoffman, his mother Marie Lange Hoffman, and his brother, Kenneth Key Hoffman Jr. He is survived by his wife, Margaret Cullinan Hoffman, his three sons, Matthew Cullinan Hoffman, John Masterson Hoffman, and Clay Lange Hoffman (Christia), and his granddaughter Taylor Elise Hoffman. Donations in his name may be made to his favorite charity, the St. Joseph Foundation, 8582 Waterworks Road, Hopedale, OH 43976, or to any other worthy cause.