Legendary Hoffman homebuilder laid to rest

While known elsewhere as a pioneering homebuilder in the suburbs, Jack Hoffman's grandchildren knew him as "Zadie."

That's the Yiddish word for grandfather, and for Hoffman's eight grandchildren who stood up together Friday morning in Buffalo Grove to speak at his funeral, Zadie represented a man madly in love with his wife of 57 years, Selma.

A visit from Zadie brought memories like how his father Sam came to Detroit, crossing over for the first time into America. Zadie shared Sam's detailed stories from old-world Russia and of his family's Jewish heritage, tales he was obliged to keep alive by sharing them with younger generations.

"Those stories set him on his course to treat people with dignity," Rabbi Karyn Kedar said.

The 85-year-old Hoffman was laid to rest Friday. He died Tuesday at Highland Park Hospital.

Hoffman's home building prowess spread after he and his father Sam transformed farmland into the bedroom community which in 1959 became Hoffman Estates,

Both Jack Hoffman's sons, Ed and Buz, spoke during the services.

Ed Hoffman said his father's death reminded him of a column venerable Chicago newspaperman Mike Royko wrote after his wife's death in 1979. Royko urged readers not to waste time and to tell their loved ones that they loved them.

"And make sure you tell Selma that before you leave this morning," Ed Hoffman said. "Jack would like that."

Kedar called Hoffman a robust man, someone who wasn't afraid of pounding his fist on a table.

"He broke rules; he enjoyed breaking rules," Kedar said. "In his later years, that was called (being) an innovator in the industry."

Hoffman also broke barriers by selling houses to minorities despite the time's blatant racism. Kedar relayed that before developing Hoffman Estates, Hoffman purchased property in Deerfield wanting to build there. Those plans never came to fruition after a conversation Hoffman supposedly had with a Deerfield official in which he was told black people couldn't own homes there. Hoffman didn't like what he heard and reacted swiftly after the conversation.

"He paid for the lunch and then he sold the parcel of land," Kedar said.

Hoffman's college career at the University of Illinois was interrupted by World War II, where he served as a Naval signalman in the Atlantic Ocean.

Hoffman was born in Detroit and built almost 5,000 homes in Hoffman Estates, as well as homes across the country, including in Arizona, Colorado and Pennsylvania.

Memorials are being accepted in Jack Hoffman's name at the Jewish United Fund, 30 S. Wells St., Chicago, IL, 60206 or Hillel: Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, 800 Eighth St., Washington, D.C., 20001.