Walter W. Hoffman dies at 86; descendant of Ventura County pioneers helped get local history museum’s current structure built

Walter W. Hoffman, the son of a Ventura County founding family who was instrumental in getting the present Museum of Ventura County built, died Nov. 13 at his Camarillo home, his family said. The cause of death was not disclosed. He was 86.

The land magnate was the great-grandson of William Dewey Hobson, who is called the father of Ventura County for spearheading the drive to separate the region from Santa Barbara County in 1872.

As a descendant of local pioneers, Hoffman had “a great love of California history” and an interest in preserving it, said Katherine Russell, a daughter.

Land that his mother donated to the museum could not be developed partly because it contained Chumash artifacts. After his mother died in 1970, Hoffman and his sister gave another parcel to the museum, then helped raise more than $650,000 to build the hacienda-like structure in downtown Ventura.

“He was a remarkable man,” said Tim Schiffer, executive director of the museum. “He typified the kind of person who has multi-generational ties to a place and really works to keep the institutions in his community going . . . yet does it under the radar.”

Walter William Hoffman was born Aug. 17, 1922, in Oxnard to Walter Hoffman and the former Edith Hobson and grew up on Rancho Casitas, the family’s thoroughbred breeding farm in Ojai.

At USC, he studied engineering but left school during World War II to serve as a Navy communications and navigation officer aboard the destroyer Buchanan.

Two weeks after returning home in 1945, he married the former Sheila Bergin and embarked on a career that included ranching and petroleum operations.

On family land, Hoffman opened a small airport in 1947 called Ventura Airpark that he ran until the early 1960s. Much of the property was soon developed into the Ventura Keys, a waterfront neighborhood where the first 250 homes sold out in a day.

In 1956, he formed Hoffman, Vance and Worthington, a land management firm from which he retired about 10 years ago.

He was a pilot and past commodore of the Transpacific Yacht Club, which organizes the biennial race from Los Angeles to Honolulu that he raced in several times.

His family considered him “the most professional amateur you could ever meet” because everything Hoffman did, he tried to do well.

“He never gave us anything without telling us to read the directions,” his daughter said with a laugh. “Before he would let us get our driver’s licenses, we had to learn to change a tire.”

Sheila, his wife of 60 years, died in 2006.

In addition to Russell, Hoffman is survived by another daughter, Carol Hambleton; seven grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

Instead of flowers, his family suggests donating to Livingston Memorial Visiting Nurse Assn. and Hospice, 1996 Eastman Ave., Ventura, CA 93003, or to the Museum of Ventura County, 100 E. Main St., Ventura, CA 93001.

Nelson is a Times staff writer.

valerie.nelson@latimes.com