Walter Hoefflin Jr.; Led Methodist Hospital Growth

Walter Rinehart Hoefflin Jr., an innovative administrator who spearheaded the mid-1950s move of Methodist Hospital from downtown Los Angeles to Arcadia and developed it into a major medical facility, has died. He was 87.

Hoefflin, who also was president of Pasadena’s Tournament of Roses in 1964-65, died Feb. 24 in San Marino.

Known as a “can-do” man in both business and his community, Hoefflin was named administrator of the old 138-bed Methodist Hospital on May 1, 1949, when the facility was at 2826 Hope St. He set about cutting costs and improving delivery of medical services by applying modern business techniques, and at the same time planning for the facility’s relocation to the San Gabriel Valley.

Hoefflin, who campaigned in the early 1950s to add hospital beds throughout Southern California medical facilities, became the major fund-raiser for what would be Methodist Hospital of Southern California. The new facility, expanding to 345 beds, opened in Arcadia in 1957.

His work for Methodist Hospital from 1946 through his retirement on March 1, 1981, earned him election by his peers as president of the 1,000-member Assn. of Western Hospitals, the Hospital Council of Southern California and the American Protestant Hospital Assn.

Born in Duluth, Minn., Hoefflin worked in San Francisco for a time, but spent most of his life in the Pasadena area. During World War II, he managed a rocket production control unit at Caltech, and before going to Methodist was head of the Pasadena Sanitarium, a neuropsychiatric institution.

Active in the Pasadena Junior Chamber of Commerce, Hoefflin created an annual Junior Rose Bowl Game for junior colleges in the mid-1940s. Partly because of that effort, he was selected as the Jaycees’ Outstanding Young Man in 1947.

Hoefflin also joined the Tournament of Roses, the organization that arranges the New Year’s Day parade, in the mid-1940s. He served in various leadership positions, including parade chairman and chairman of the queen and court committee, and president for the year leading up to the 1965 parade.

As president, Hoefflin selected the parade theme--Headlines in Flowers--and chose the marshal--professional golf legend Arnold Palmer.

The parade invitation sparked a long friendship between Palmer and Hoefflin, a lifelong sports fan and onetime pole vaulter. Palmer returned to Pasadena for many years to aid Hoefflin with an annual fund-raising golf clinic and tournament at the Annandale Country Club benefiting Methodist Hospital.

Hoefflin’s only child, Walter R. Hoefflin III, who rode with him in the president’s car during that 1965 parade, was later hired as the Rose Parade manager.

Hoefflin is survived by his wife of 63 years, the former Ruth Webster; his son; four grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Funeral services are private. The family has asked that any memorial donations be made to the Methodist Hospital Foundation for its Cardiology Department, 300 W. Huntington Drive, Arcadia, CA 91006.