- Date Of Birth: March 14, 1925
- Date Of Death: February 1, 2015
- State: Maine
Donald Wallace Hoffses
March 14, 1925
February 1, 2015
Don’s paternal ancestor was Matthias Hoffses, a German immigrant who settled in the Waldoboro, Maine area in 1752.
The blood line goes as follows:
Matthias had 12 children. The 10th child was
Andrew who had 9 children. The 2nd child was
Matthias who had 7 children. The 2nd child was
Andrew J. Who had 4 children. The 1st child was
William M. Who had 5 children. The 5th child was
William Eustis Russell who had 2 children. The 2nd was
Donald Wallace .
Donald Hoffses – a life filled with many interests, adventures and accomplishments. He was a son, a brother, a husband, a father, a grandfather and a great grandfather.
Don was born March 14, 1925 at home on Atlantic Street on Munjoy Hill, Portland, Maine, the second son of William Eustis Russell Hoffses and Winifred Irene Seavey Hoffses.
The family moved from Munjoy Hill to Gilman Street in the West End section of Portland, which was near the Engine 6 and Ladder 6 Fire Station, where he spent many hours drawing pictures of the apparatus. He became sort of a mascot to the firemen, who paid a lot of attention to this little boy who was to become a fire buff in the future.
The family next moved to East Deering on Presumpscot Street, where he attended elementary school. Young Donald was very involved in the soap box derby races every year that were sponsored by the Portland Press Herald and the Chevrolet dealers. With his father’s help, he would design his car to specifications according to the rules. Then, he would build it, paint and letter it, and race it. These races were well attended and very popular at the time. He was involved in a disputed race, where he was called the winner, then tied for second and finally ended up as third when someone released the lever holding his car and it went down the ramp without him in it. The controversy at the time was instrumental in the canceling of the races for many years.
The family’s final move was to Whitney Avenue in the Libby town area. He attended Lincoln Junior and Deering High Schools. He graduated from Deering in the class of 1943. Because he was in Casablanca serving on a merchant ship at graduation time he received his diploma with the class of 1944 along with five other servicemen, who were also serving their country at the time of their actual graduation ceremonies. He is listed as a member of both classes and happily attends their class reunions.
A veteran of World War 2, he graduated from Kings Point, the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in New York as a Lieutenant and navigator. He sailed in the North and South Atlantic, the Arctic and the Indian Oceans, and the Mediterranean Sea. Some of the ports of call and the cargoes his ships carried were: Casablanca, Morocco with war supplies and food; Sicily, Palermo and Naples Italy with 1,000 pound bombs and 50 gallon drums of high octane gasoline; Glasgow, Scotland and Murmansk, Russia with railroad cars, trucks, boots, flour and sugar. Other ports of call were Cherbourg and Le Havre, France with steam locomotives and assorted war equipment.
His ship was in the convoy on the famous Murmansk run where 97 merchant ships were torpedoed and sunk and thousands of seamen were lost. He used to say his guardian angels had to work in shifts to keep him safe as ships blew up all around him.
He was in Antwerp, Belgium when the war ended and he received his honorable discharge.
He received special commendation from President Truman, which states that in Oct. 1943 while under attack in the harbor of Naples, Italy, he was “Responsible for bringing an open ship’s launch from a shore landing to the ship’s anchorage under heavy enemy fire without any casualties.”
After the war, having passed the U.S. Coastguard examination, he shipped out as third mate for waterman steamship line and later as second mate and first mate for the socony vacuum line.
For a short time, he worked on a special assignment basis as a traffic survey engineer for the Portland Police Dept, specializing in high-accident frequency intersections, traffic flow, and traffic aids. One of his 24 hour surveys and recommendations led to the construction of Canco Road.
His artistic side was evident in his venturing into the business world, creating signs and displays and forming his own small businesses – Hand Art Studios (silk screen work and small signs), Metropolitan Display ( which included making small wooden toys) and Sign Crafters (designing, constructing, and painting large signs for department stores and businesses).
To augment his income while building his sign business, he worked at Sam’s Superette on Munjoy Hill. Sam and his wife, Rosie, were well-known on Munjoy Hill as very hardworking and dedicated people, who never took a vacation or a day off from work until Don came to work for them. After just a few weeks on the job, they trusted him to take over the store long enough for them to have a night off, then a weekend off and finally longer. They were sorry to see him leave when he landed a full time job at Rines Brothers Department Store.
At Rines Bros., he was display director and store operations manager. While there, he enjoyed the friendly rivalry between the different stores on Congress Street competing for the best window displays and interior décor, especially at Christmas time, fire prevention week, and other special occasions.
When Maine’s first TV station, WPMT (a UHF network), was under construction here at the Columbia Hotel in Portland, Don met with Mr. Gildersleeve about 3 weeks before they were to go on the air. During the conversation Don asked about the sets they would be using for their live broadcasts and to his astonishment he was hired on the spot to construct them. He built them in the cellar of his house at 54 Raymond Road on 4×8 sheets held together with clamps. He built a general store set with pot bellied stove, a weather set, inside a cabin, a set for Hiram Hoe-Handle and one for Hezzie Q. Snow (local characters to be portrayed. ) Opening night Gildersleeve let him stay as long as he kept out of camera range. It was soon evident they needed help and the director told Don to grab a light and move it here and there as the broadcast continued. They had 6 lights and only one camera and in 15 minutes they had to go from set to set to set in seconds. Needless to say, he loved it and went to work for them in the evenings after working at Rines Bros. There, he continued to design and build the sets for the live productions. He learned lighting and camera operations and finally directing shows like Schooner Cartooner, the Duke Knight show, the Ken Mackenzie show as well as the ones mentioned before. This station closed when the network stations – CBS, NBC and ABC opened up. When the station closed the Maine Savings Bank chose Don to pick up loose ends and get rid of equipment. Mr. Hoy, the owner, then hired Don to come to Lewiston and work for him at WLAM. Don stayed for 2 or 3 months then returned to Portland. In 1955, he went to work at WGAN-TV (now WGME). he did scenery, was a director, producer/director, program director and production manager over the years. He directed the local news, weather and sports, and many special telecasts including the first live coverage of the State of Maine Class l schoolboy basketball championship from the Portland Exposition Building. Other programs included, “On the Spot,” “The Mighty Ninety Show,” and “The Binnie Ellis Show.” He directed the Lloyd Knight Show, Dave Astor and the Dave Astor Show special with Jordan Meats. He worked on the Gary Merrill and Bette Davis appearance on person to person with Edward R Murrow. He did the world premiere of “The Virgin Queen” with Bette Davis at the Strand Theater and many other special events, including the interviews with presidents Kennedy and Nixon when they were in Portland campaigning. He received a special award for “24 hours” an award winning documentary film depicting a day in the life of the Portland Fire Dept. After a few years, he was also named production manager and producer in addition to his directing duties.
While working in television, Don also indulged in his passion and life long interest in the fire department which started when he was a small boy. Remembering the horrible fires in the 40’s that caused so much destruction in Maine, he decided to equip steel trailers with equipment and hoses and sell them to small towns. Figuring most volunteer fire fighters had pick up trucks with trailer hitches, these trailers would provide the first volunteer to arrive to get something to the fire immediately. In addition to offering them to towns, he designed and delivered 10 fire fighting trailers to the New Hampshire forest and recreation department built to specifications, the trailers were part of a firefighting unit network in the Granite State’s far northerly unorganized towns. These trailers pumped 275 gallons a minute through two – and-a-half inch line and carried 150 feet of booster line.
As this business grew in 1963, Don decided to leave TV and buy into Eastern Fire Equipment Co., where he worked until deciding to form his own company with two partners by combining the fire and safety equipment with the fire trailer line and name it Admiral Fire and Safety, Inc. He sold alarm systems to homes, restaurants and other businesses as well as equipment to fire and police departments. He eventually bought out his partners and became sole owner of the business.
His next endeavor was to build small fire trucks which he designed to specifications for small towns who could not afford the very expensive trucks built by American Lafrance and Mack Firetruck Companies. He would buy a pick-up- truck, meet with the fire chief of the town, and design a truck with the particular specifications that the chief and firemen wanted. He would then supervise the building of his design by Tri-tank Engineering, of Westbrook. After having his creations painted and lettered, he would deliver them to grateful towns throughout Maine.
