Mike Hoffman

Myron "Mike" Hoffman was born in Chicago on November 15, 1930, and went to Hyde Park High School on the south side of the city. After high school he went to MIT as a freshman in 1947. He got his BS, MS and PhD at MIT and in 1955 he became an Assistant Professor of Aeronautical Engineering at MIT. In 1956, he volunteered for a 3-year tour of duty as a 1st Lt. in the US Air Force (USAF) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, since the USAF required skilled engineers at the height of the Cold War.

In 1963, he married Sharna, the best move he ever made. Their first son, Steven, was born in October 1965 in Boston. When he was 1 year old in 1966, the three of them took a Sabbatical Leave to spend a year in Italy at the Direct Energy Conversion Laboratory of CNEN (Comitato Nationale per Energia Nucleare) in Frascati, Italy. At the lab, he worked on Magnetogasdynamic Generators and also learned Italian. Upon his return, he decided to move from MIT to a relatively new campus of the University of California in Davis, very near Sacramento. Here he was in the Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, and did consulting on future fusion reactor designs for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), about 90 miles south of Davis.

In July 1968, our 2nd son, Douglas, was born. Then in 1972, the family went on a 2nd Sabbatical Leave to Frascati, Italy to work in the Fusion Energy Laboratory of ENEA, Energia Nucleare e Energia Alternativa. There Mike was in an Italian group which did the Conceptual Design of the Fintor Fusion Reactor.

During his time at UCDavis, Mike & Sharna and the boys did lots of skiing and backpacking in the Sierras and Lake Tahoe region. Then Cal Kado and Bill Schnortherst introduced Mike to Fly-Fishing, which they enjoyed together for the next 20 years or so.

Upon returning from Italy to Davis, CA, he continued to consult for the LLNL on fusion reactor design and to teach thermodynamics and gas turbines and advanced energy conversion courses, until his retirement in 2005. His retirement was forced on him by an illness, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). After retiring he continued to work on his home computer, listen to lots of audio books, go to an Advanced Italian Conversation Group once a week and generally enjoy a leisurely life around Davis.

He is survived by his loving wife Sharna, his 1st son, Steven and his wife Naomi and their two wonderful sons, Zachary and Skylar, and his 2nd son Douglas. Mike is also survived by his much younger sister, Marilyn.