2024 Alexis de Tocqueville Humanitarian Award
United Way of Carlisle & Cumberland County is pleased to announce Ann Hoffer as the recipient of the 2024 Alexis de Tocqueville Humanitarian Award.
Ann Kramer Hoffer was recognized at the United Way’s annual Humanitarian Award reception June 18, sponsored by Dickinson College and Martson Law Offices. Over 100 people gathered in Dickinson’s Social Hall to honor Mrs. Hoffer’s philanthropic contributions to the greater Carlisle area.
Hoffer was introduced by David Metz, of the Metz Wealth Management Group at Morgan Stanlely, wo serves as the chair of the Alexis de Tocqueville Society. Metz and Cate Mellen, Executive Director of the United Way of Carlisle & Cumberland County, presented the award.
The award was established in 2000 to acknowledge an individual or couple’s outstanding volunteer service to the community. The award is named for the Frenchman who traveled the United States in the early 1800s and who wrote the landmark book on American society and politics, “Democracy in America.” He highlighted the concept of Americans coming to the aid of their fellow residents.
Recent winners are Hubert Gilroy in 2023, Marcia Drozdowski in 2022, Kenn & Denver Tuckey in 2021, Don & Marjie Mowery in 2019, Kurt E. Suter in 2018; Mike Devlin in 2017; and Jim Washington in 2016. Paul L. Strickler was the first honoree in 2000.
ANN HOFFER
Born and raised in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Ann Kramer Hoffer can trace her roots in Carlisle back to the Civil War era, when the Kramers first arrived from Germany. Ann’s education began in Carlisle schools, and she later graduated from the Shipley School in Bryn Mawr, PA and Hollins College in Roanoke, VA where her favorite subject was history. After a short stint working in New York City, Ann taught 4th grade in both the Carlisle and Cumberland Valley districts because, as she has said, “they wouldn’t let women teach history.”
A few years after her marriage to attorney George Hoffer, she left teaching, but was rarely idle. She spent much of her time volunteering for a variety of nonprofit organizations in the greater Carlisle area including the Lydia Baird home, the Carlisle Hospital Auxiliary, and Bosler Memorial Library, where she served as vice president, operations chairwoman, and a member of the committee to develop plans for the second floor of the 1987 library expansion, which was completed in 1993. She was awarded the Molly Pitcher Award by the Carlisle Exchange Club in 1993.
In 1986 Ann served as the chair of the United Way of the Greater Carlisle Area’s annual campaign—the first woman to do so on her own. She was instrumental in the establishment of the United Way’s Leadership Associates, a giving society formed to recognize individuals who donated $500 or more to the campaign. She served on both the committees to celebrate the United Way’s 75th Anniversary in 1993, and the 100th Anniversary in 2018. She has also been active with the Carlisle Arts Learning Center supporting every aspect of CALC – including its artists and programming, and served as a co-chair of the campaign to relocate CALC to its present location at 38 W Pomfret St in 2013. In 2021 she was honored with CALC’s From the heART Award.
Ann’s true passion is history, and since the 1970s she has been a dedicated volunteer, member, donor and leader at the Cumberland County Historical Society. She claims she started by dusting the books in the library, because that was all the men who ran the place allowed her to do. After several years she became the first woman to join the board of the society and in 1981 was elected as the first female president of the board, a role which she held for five years. During her leadership then and again in the early 90s, the Cumberland County Historical Society took great strides into the future. She encouraged the development of a variety of programming for the public, including lectures and walking tours, and she worked with the museum committee on the installation of a variety of exhibits over the years. She initiated the annual Antiques Forum and served as its chair, and was co-chair of the fundraising effort to permit the society to hire its first executive director. She was a part of several significant building projects at the Historical Society, and served as chair of 1996 expansion of the building on Pitt Street. She was instrumental in the Society’s acquisition of Two Mile House and served for many years as the chair of that committee. Serving as Board President again in the early 2000s, Ann oversaw the expansion of the museum. Over the years she has funded a variety of efforts at the Historical Society, both significant capital projects and a variety of innovations to help spread her passion for history. Earlier this year the society introduced the “Ann Kramer Hoffer Curatorial Mentorship Program” a two-year paid internship program made possible by Ann’s generous support which is designed to help nurture the next generation of museum professionals. She is also a published author, writing or collaborating on a number of volumes of local history. She has been awarded both the Roger K. & Helen E. Todd Distinguished Service Award and the Executive Director’s Leadership in History Award.
In 2010, Ann established the George E. Hoffer Second Chance Memorial Scholarship, in memory of her late husband who served as a judge of the Cumberland County Court of Common Pleas from his first election in 1979 until his retirement in 2005. According to Ann, he first ran for judge because of his desire to help juvenile offenders get their lives back on track. He served as president judge and juvenile court judge from 1998 to 2005. The partial tuition scholarship is awarded to youth nominated by their probation officers to pursue the higher education course of their choice. Recipients can be eligible for up to four years, provided they remain in good standing. In the thirteen years since the scholarship’s inception, the program has awarded over $75,000 to 22 students, at least three of whom were awarded funding for all four years. The fund was initially handled by Cumberland County, but is now overseen by the Cumberland County Bar Foundation.
