UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Margery E. Hoffman, widow of 1982 Penn State civil engineering doctoral alumnus Paul C. Hoffman, credits her husband’s successful career to his foundational education at Penn State. In her husband’s memory, she has committed a $1.05 million estate gift to endow a fellowship for graduate students in civil engineering.
“This fellowship will benefit an untold number of future civil and environmental engineers, who are studying to make a positive impact on the sustainability of the natural and built environment in our country and around the world,” said Farshad Rajabipour, interim department head and John A. and Harriette K. Shaw Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the Penn State College of Engineering. “We are grateful to the Hoffman family for supporting our department in this important work. Their legacy will be our graduate students, who will go on to shape our future through their careers in industry, government and academia.”
The fellowship, to be named the Dr. Paul C. Hoffman Graduate Fellowship in Civil Engineering in the College of Engineering, will be awarded to current or prospective students exhibiting outstanding academic excellence as candidates for a graduate degree in civil engineering in the J. Jeffrey and Ann Marie Fox Graduate School. Each fellowship will be awarded for one academic year and may be renewed for subsequent years.
Paul Hoffman received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Scranton. He then served with distinction as a navigator and electronic warfare officer for the U.S. Air Force (USAF) during the Vietnam War, notably surviving a B-52 crash at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal for his actions during combat and achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel.
After his military service, Paul attended Villanova University, receiving bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering. He then went on to Penn State, where he performed research on the thermal analysis of bridges while completing his doctorate.
“The Penn State campus and the Sackett Building were exactly the environment he required to study and perform research, post active duty,” Margery Hoffman said. “During his time at Penn State, he did not go to a single football game, preferring to use the game time to claim the stillness of State College as his own. They were the most organized and satisfying years of his life.”
After graduating in 1982, Paul worked as an assistant professor of civil engineering at Auburn University and later Villanova University while continuing to serve in the USAF Reserve. He concluded his working years as civilian director of engineering education and research partnerships for the Naval Air Systems Command in Patuxent River, Maryland. He published more than 30 papers on random loads on civil engineering structures.
Margery and her husband married in 1988 and had a son, Johannes Hoffman, who practices as an attorney in Philadelphia. The couple has also supported the Harry West Teaching Endowment for the Advancement of Civil Engineering Education at Penn State for more than a decade. Paul died in 2020.
“Paul was forever grateful for his graduate education at Penn State,” Margery said. “He leveraged his Penn State education to conduct research, publish papers and educate students. This fellowship is a fitting way to carry on his legacy, as he would want to ensure that the first-rate graduate education in research that he received at Penn State continues to be available and attainable to graduate students in the future.”
Donors like Paul C. and Margery E. Hoffman advance the University’s historic land-grant mission to serve and lead. Through philanthropy, alumni and friends are helping students to join the Penn State family and prepare for lifelong success; driving research, outreach and economic development that grow our shared strength and readiness for the future; and increasing the University’s impact for families, patients and communities across the commonwealth and around the world. Learn more by visiting raise.psu.edu.