Lloyd Henry Hoff was born on June 11, 1910 in Balko, Oklahoma. His parents, Benjamin Tobias Hoff and Margaret Holm Hoff, were farmers. Hoff had one younger brother named Louis and one older brother named Herman. The Hoff family moved to Walla Walla, Washington in 1917 and lived there for five or six years. They then moved to San Juan Batista, California, which is where Lloyd attended high school while also working on the family farm. Though he recognized its importance to his childhood, Lloyd never wanted a farm life for himself. Instead, he had a great interest in art, literature, and poetry. His brother once reported that Lloyd recited poetry to the cows while milking them. Lloyd's family was supportive of his artistic development during his adolescence, and his paternal aunt helped him through college. Hoff attended a junior college in California (possibly in Hollister) from 1929-1931 before attending the University of California at Berkeley for two years. He earned a bachelor’s degree and two master’s degrees in history and in art. While at Berkeley, he took a class from Mr. Obata, a Japanese man who taught him Sumi painting and Oriental brushwork. After attending the class, Hoff lived with Obata and his family for a year.
During his time in California, he illustrated books for friends, and created some illustrations for Communist newspapers at the request of his first wife. He sometimes signed his illustrations as “hans,” which was a family name but may specifically be a reference to a paternal uncle of whom he was fond. He also created the graphic design for a “Thank You” that would appear on a restaurant check. He worked at Walt Disney Studios but left after just two weeks, finding the copy work there uncreative and unfulfilling. He then applied for work in the civil service and did very well in the exams. He was placed in the Bonneville Power Administration as a graphic designer in 1939, which prompted him to move to Oregon. He eventually became chief of the graphics department there. He also worked for other departments of the Interior, such as the Indian Bureau.
By the time Hoff moved to Oregon, he had divorced his first wife. He met Clementine, his second wife, in 1939. They were married on November 29th, 1941, and Pearl Harbor was bombed on the last day of their honeymoon. Because Lloyd had no children, he was a probable candidate for the draft during World War II, but was not drafted until a year later. He went to Camp Adair for a year, where he nearly died from pneumonia. He then shipped out to the South Pacific and was stationed in New Caledonia and the Philippines. He started out as a private but became a mapmaker and was thus transferred to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Hoff made friends with local inhabitants in the Philippines who gave him culinary gifts upon his departure. This led to a bout of amoebic dysentery which would last for years. His next desination was Japan; however, his positive experience with the Obata family in Berkeley made him feel very conflicted about impending combat with the Japanese. Fortunately, the war ended while he was on his way to Japan. He stayed there for the first few months of the U.S. occupation, and was discharged in December of 1945.
After the war, Lloyd and Clementine Hoff had two children, named Ben and Laurie. Lloyd continued his work with the Bonneville Power Administration while also creating illustrations for other works. Near the end of his career, Hoff injured his hand while cutting wood, which made it very painful for him to draw. His wife reported that the illustrations for Marvin Rosenberg’s book jackets were particularly difficult. He retired in 1975, and died on November 29, 1982.
From the guide to the Lloyd Hoff Papers, 1936-1984, (Oregon Historical Society)
