Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

HOFF Lothar Clemens ED

MB BS FRACMA FRANZCP MRC PSYCH DPM (RCP&S)

1927-2013

Lothar Clemens Hoff was born on 14th July 1927 at Koonibba Lutheran mission station, an aboriginal settlement, on Eyre Peninsula just west of Ceduna. He was the son of Aughust Bernard Carl Hoff and Sewera Alma, nee Kroehn. His father was a Lutheran missionary minister and superintendent of the mission station. When he was three the family moved to Emu Downs, between Eudunda, where he went to primary school, and Burra. He was educated at the Adelaide High School, He graduated MB BS from the University of Adelaide in 1952.

Whilst at university he joined the Bethlehem Lutheran Church’s youth group. Here he met a singer in the choir, Pauline Hensel, whom he married in 1955. They were to have three children. He undertook an intern year at the RAH, in 1953, and during that year decided to become a psychiatrist. He was influenced by Dr John Cawte, deputy superintendent of Enfield receiving House and Dr Hugh Birch, superintendent of Mental Institutions, at a lunch time session at the RAH. Hoff was excited about the newly created opportunities to work in psychiatric institutions, and the fact that the remuneration was very generous for the times, with the additional advantage of available housing on the psychiatric hospital grounds. Although other senior medical honorary consultants advised him against taking up psychiatry, he commenced his training initially at Enfield Receiving House and later at Parkside Mental Hospital, in 1954.

Hoff travelled to the United Kingdom, in 1960, to gain his Diploma in Psychological Medicine at the Springfield Hospital, London. He returned to Adelaide after two years in London for an appointment as the superintendent of Parkside Hospital from 1963-1980. During this time he gained his Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators.

Hoff joined the CMF as a captain in the RAAMC, whilst continuing in his civilian career. He was promoted to Major.  Later he was posted as a specialist psychiatrist, on full time duty, for three months to South Vietnam, as a Lieutenant Colonel, in 1971. After his deployment to Vietnam he returned to the CMF, and was later posted as the Consultant Psychiatrist in Central Command.

Hoff had many professional appointments in civilian life including numerous committees associated with Parkside. He was also a senior visiting psychiatrist at the Repatriation General Hospital, Daw Park. He was Chairman of the SA Branch of the Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists. Hoff was Acting Director of Mental Health Services in South Australia from 1980-1985. He was a Member of the Guardianship Board from 2002-2011.

His philanthropic work led him to be a Founding Member of a committee which established the Sheltered Workshops for the handicapped. An Award in his name, known as “HandsOn” is presented annually to a company which supplied significant contracts to the work done by that organisation.

Following his father’s death in 1971, he became the custodian of his father’s collection of Aboriginal artefacts, notes and manuscripts documenting the language of the Aboriginal people when they were in Koonibba. He published his father’s notes: The Hoff Vocabularies of Indigenous Languages from the Far West Coast of South Australia, in 2004. He also donated his father’s collection of seventy five aboriginal artefacts to the South Australian Museum, in 2008.

Lothar Clemens Hoff died on 27th November 2013 at the age of 85. He was survived by his wife Pauline, his three sons, Gregory Michael and Brenton, and his four grandchildren.