More Ross Hoffman Stories

Tomorrow afternoon is Ross' viewing in the sanctuary of College Wesleyan Church in Marion from 1-4.  Then the funeral is Monday there at 1pm.

I was trying to think of stories about Ross from the trip to Turkey that perhaps I hadn't shared, and I welcome Dave Ward and Keith Drury to add theirs here.  Ross and Karen went to Greece with Keith several years ago, so some may like to share stories from those adventures too.

Ross loved people.  The highlight of our trip for him was not so much the archaeological sites or following the path Paul took.  It made no sense to him--and may not make any sense to many of you--that Keith, Dave, and I wanted to follow the long path of Paul north from Antalya (Attalia) up the mountains to Antioch of Pisidia (Yalvach) only to come back down again the other side through mountains to Tarsus.  You see, Tarsus was only a few hours down the coast from Antalya.

Ross wasn't really too interested in mounds of dirt in the middle of fields--which is the current state of Colossae, Lystra, and Derbe, all places we visited.  What he cared about was the people.  Probably the highlight of the whole trip was having chai (tea) with Memesh and his wife near the mound of Lystra.

Memesh took us all over the site, exclaiming with distinct hand motions things that only Dave Ward seemed to understand.

In Cappadocia, we found a baklava place with another garrulous proprietor.  Ross was in his element and had a wonderful time talking to the owner, who was pretty good at English. I don't know how many different kinds of baklava we sampled, including spinach baklava.  I think most of us agreed that we would have been fine to stick with the "normal" kind. As we left, we remarked that we would have to remember where that place was if we ever came back.

Stay away from the green ones

Early in the trip, Ross was also quite struck by Troas, of all places (there are only tall weeds over random stone--although we did jump a fence to get in).  He wanted to put his feet in the water that Paul had crossed heading west to Greece.  It was a really special moment for him early in the trip.

Ross looking south toward Troas

I've mentioned how good Ross was at bargaining with hotel owners for our room rate. One of our best hotel experiences was at Hierapolis, where Ross skillfully maneuvered the owner into the cheaper rate for the more expensive rooms. We had a great dinner too.

Notice Ross desperately trying to connect to the internet on his iPad

waters flowing down from the natural springs of Hierapolis

There were also the fun personality differences on a trip like this one.  Ross is a planner.  In his perfect world, he would have known exactly where we were going to stay each night for the whole trip. Frankly, we had a couple nights of wasteful driving around (including one down a suspicious alley in Izmir) that no doubt justified the concern. By contrast, on these sorts of trips, Keith likes to see where we end up and find something on the spot.

The last morning, as we were driving to Istanbul, Ross was unusually quiet.  When we got to Istanbul, it was clear that finding parking and a hotel were the top items on his agenda. After we found parking, he disappeared for a few minutes with Dave only to return with his usual exuberant personality back in place. He had found an incredible hotel whose roof looked out on this--and at an unusually good price. :-)

Aya Sofya

Ross and I paired up to go through Hagia Sophia (above) together and he took lots of pictures. We paired up a couple times to see things Keith and Dave passed on.  We went through the terraced houses exhibit at Ephesus together.  I lent him a book on Roman engineering after we got back. After Hagia Sophia, Ross went to the palace in Istanbul alone--and took lots of pictures. 

Ross in Hagia Sophia

Here are some pictures that stood out to Ross in the palace:

Here are some other pictures he took:

Random wedding in the ruins of Sardis

Bag lady at the side of the road :-)

Here are some more great memories:

Just after arriving in Istanbul

Pergamum

Baptismal pool, Church of St. Mary, Ephesus

South of Troas

Out of order, Sardis

Library of Celsus, Ephesus

Lake Egedir

Great, great memories...

A Dear Man: Ross Hoffman

A beloved brother in our church and university community passed away last night in a freak accident. My Turkey compatriot Ross Hoffman was working in a trench in his yard when the wall collapsed in on him.

Ross on far right

Ross was an ebullient sort of person. It's no coincidence that he served the university for a long time in development.  He loved people, was optimistic, and was the kind of guy who would stand faithfully with a person till the very end.

I think I first got to know Ross through some close friends of my parents, Marceil and Kenny Bostic. Marceil just passed away a couple weeks ago at 95.  To say she was a fan of Marion College (IWU's old name) is an understatement.  By the way, Terry Munday stood by her side from the time when she was a spunky woman calling all the shots till she had lost practically all her friends and strength to time.  She had long since gone from being a donor to a dear friend of his. He wasn't even working for the university any more, and he was taking care of her almost daily.

That's the kind of person Ross was too. They don't make development people like that any more. He had a natural optimism that was hard to bring down. President Barnes put him in charge of a think tank at IWU in the old days where he guided the discussion of the most strategic thinkers in the university to brainstorm its future course. In Turkey, we were reveling at the fact that this group wasn't on any organizational chart, that it had subordinates sometimes and not their superiors in the chain of command. It was, in other words, wonderfully lateral in nature, an embodiment of the kind of innovation and pragmatism that contributed to those years of immense success at IWU.  And Ross was right there at the center of it.

Then he had the idea of taking over Pro Prints, a business here in Marion that will make about any kind of sports gear, T-shirt, banner, etc.  When we were in Turkey, Ross was on Skype each night keeping a key project going... and of course talking to his wife, Karen, who was with their daughter Jolie and their new grandchild at the time. Again, he was the kind of guy who was willing to take a chance and throw everything into it to make it work, because he believed in it.

I didn't really know Ross very well, though, until we went to Turkey for 10 days. He had been trying to get Keith Drury to go for years, and I'm so glad it worked out. Ross and I were the internet junkies on the trip.  The night near Ephesus where he and I sat out in the motel hall with iPad and laptop to get internet reception was typical. It was a little one hall motel behind a gas station, with no where to park because of a wedding going on.

And Ross took pictures.  In fact sometimes he took pictures when I wasn't sure people would want their picture taken... women in carts, people at weddings, caves at Cappadocia with signs saying not to take pictures. :-)  We teased him when he thought our best bet for good directions to a hotel was "young, modern looking women."

And he was the connoisseur of getting a hotel room. Keith and Dave Ward forced me to go with him on more than one occasion so they could watch me squirm as Ross skillfully bargained with hotel managers over the cost of a room for the night. At Nicaea we went through about four hotels till Ross' showdown with an equally skillful manager who looked to be running all the shady business deals of the city.  We ended with a very reasonable rate at one of the best hotels along Lake Nicaea.

I especially enjoyed Ross talking about his discussions with his son Logan over theology.  Ross came from relatively conservative Baptist roots, I believe.  Meanwhile, Logan grew up Wesleyan here, studied ministry at IWU, and did his MDiv at Princeton. I could see they had great dialog together. Ross really appreciated Logan's insights and was even changed by them. It says something when a father can engage his son on such a deep level. Logan and his wife are ministering in New Zealand right now.

Pray for Logan, his sister Jolie, and of course Karen, Ross' wife. Pray for Jason Ewer too, who was in the trench with him when it collapsed. Jason was only covered to the waist and is okay.

It is the great mystery of life that you can be having a conversation with someone one moment, and they be gone the next.  The finality is jolting. It doesn't compute with our minds, the irreversibility of it.  So we cherish his memory down here and hope to see him again in eternity. It was a testament to how dear a soul Ross was that a cadre of dozens of people assembled at the hospital last night, long after he was gone.  He is already dearly missed.