Former Surrey school trustee Ken Hoffmann was remembered this week as an intensely patriotic Canadian who cared deeply about children.
Hoffmann, a resident of Surrey, died Saturday.
After a career as a special-education teacher on Vancouver Island, he retired to the Lower Mainland and served two three-year terms as a Surrey Board of Education trustee, from 1993-’99, as a member of Surrey Electors Team.
He “always kept children and their best interests at the centre of his objectives,” said district spokesperson, Doug Strachan.
Surrey school board chair Laurae McNally remembers Hoffmann best for his performances at board meetings – which were broadcast on television.
“Sometimes before he’d speak, he’d turn and open by saying, ‘I want to talk to all those people out there in television-land,’” she recalled, with a chuckle.
During his time as a trustee, Hoffmann lobbied to have O Canada sung regularly in Surrey schools, as well as before board meetings – a tradition still done to this day.