Hoff, Ebbe Curtis, 1906-1985

Ebbe Curtis Hoff was born in Rexford, Kansas 12 August 1906. He earned his Bachelor's degree in Zoology, graduating summa cum laude from the University of Washington in 1928. He attended Oxford University where he earned a Master's and a Ph.D. in neurophysiology and an M.D. From 1932 to 1936, he was the Alexander Browne Coxe research fellow in the School of Medicine at Yale University. He also attended the London Hospital of the University of London at the beginning of World War II, and he was assigned to several hospitals in and about London during the initial years of the war. He returned to Yale to begin research in aviation medicine for the United States War Department. This research focused on motion sickness, the effects of high altitude flying and acceleration, and structural design for crash survival. Hoff was commissioned a Lt. Commander in the Medical Corps of the Naval Reserve where he was assigned to the Navy's Research Division of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. In 1946, now a Commander, he became the Assistant Naval Attache at the US Embassy in London. After the war, Hoff began teaching as Professor of Physiology at the Medical College of Virginia. In 1948, The Commonwealth of Virginia added the Division of Alcohol Studies and Rehabilitation to the State Health Department, and Hoff was selected to be its director. For the next thirty years, Hoff would continue to teach and work for the alcoholic treatment clinic, now housed at MCV. In 1977, Hoff was granted emeritus professor status. In his years at Virginia Commonwealth University, Hoff served as Professor of Neurological Science, Professor of Psychiatry, and Dean of Graduate Studies. Over the course of his career, he wrote over 180 articles, books, and speeches focusing on his physiological research, military medical procedures, and alcoholic addiction. Hoff died 17 February 1985 in Richmond, Virginia.