Julian Hoffman

Julian Hoffman, 95, of Long Branch died Dec. 6, 2017. He was born in Brooklyn and moved to Belmar as an infant, living there until 1962, when he moved to Deal Park, and to Long Branch in 1997. He also had a residence in Palm Beach, Fla., for nearly 20 years. 

Mr. Hoffman joined his father in running South Shore Paper Inc. (first in Belmar and then in Neptune City), the paper products and janitorial supplies company founded by his father. He was president from 1965 through 1986, when he sold the company and embarked on a number of ventures in the hotel and real estate industries. Through the years he was also involved in a number of other business ventures with his friends. These included Wild West City near Toms River and Frontier Town near Pleasantville in the 1950s, the West End Casino and Colony Surf Club in West End during the 1960s, and the Park and Shore (home of the Pandemonium Club) motels in Wanamassa and parking lots, rides, and arcades on the Asbury Park boardwalk in the 1970s and 1980s. 

He attended Belmar Grammar School, Asbury Park High School, and Monmouth Junior College before graduating from Indiana University in 1943 with a bachelor of science in business and accounting. 

He enlisted in the U.S. Army on June 12, 1943, and was deployed in the Pacific theater of World War II from May 1944 to November 1945, first in Finchhaven, New Guinea, and then in Northern Luzon, Philippines, where he was a first sergeant in charge of the 307th Ordinance Company (200 soldiers), which was preparing to invade Japan. After declining a field commission, he was discharged from the Army on Dec. 8, 1945. He was a life member, Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW).

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He was founding chairman, board of directors of Monmouth Health Care Foundation, (Monmouth Medical Center Foundation, Long Branch), 1988-1993; life honorary member, Monmouth Health Care Foundation, and an honorary trustee; and a member of the board of trustees at Monmouth Medical Center and Monmouth University, West Long Branch; and executive council of the Boy Scouts of America Monmouth Council, which recognized him as “man of the year.” 

He was commissioner of the New Jersey Highway Authority and treasurer of the executive committee from 1974 to 1982 (appointed by Gov. Brendan Byrne); finance chairman for James Howard’s successful campaign for U.S. Congress in 1964; finance chairman, State of New Jersey, for Birch Bayh’s campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1976; and New Jersey delegate to the Democratic Party national conventions in New York City (1976, 1980) and San Francisco (1984).

He was founding president of the Jewish Federation of the Shore Area (now the Jewish Federation in the Heart of New Jersey) and member of the executive committee and Leaders Council; chairman, United Jewish Appeal, Belmar, beginning in 1947 (he was the youngest chairman in the United States in 1947 and personally gave Abba Eban, then head of Israel’s commission to the U.N., a check for $5,000 in Atlantic City); president; of the Hillel School of the Shore Area for approximately 15 years and honorary (life) president; founding member, Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Monmouth County, chairman, Israel Bonds Campaign, Monmouth County, and honorary chairman of Monmouth County Israel Bonds; vice president, Congregation Sons of Israel, Belmar, for approximately 20 years; vice president, Congregation Sons of Israel, Asbury Park, for approximately 20 years; and life member, Jewish War Veterans. He was recognized as “man of the year” by Congregation Sons of Israel, Asbury Park, the Hillel School of the Shore area (twice), Monmouth County Israel Bonds, and the Monmouth County Society of the Fellows of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith. 

An avid golfer, he was a member of Jumping Brook Country Club and then Hollywood Country Club from the late 1940s through the 1990s. 

He is survived by his wife of 71 years, Betty Louise (Spiegal); two sons, Stephen L. (B. Kim Lee Sim) of Gaithersburg, Md., and Jeffrey (Rachel Mendelsohn) of Holmdel; and four grandchildren. 

Services were held Dec. 8 with arrangements by Bloomfield-Cooper Jewish Chapels, Ocean. Memorial contributions may be made to Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Monmouth County or Monmouth Medical Center Foundation.