Remembering David Hoffman

Retired doctor perishes in boating accident

A longtime Lovell doctor was remembered this week for his skill as a physician and surgeon and his care and compassion for his patients.

Dr. David Hoffman, 72, perished last Wednesday, July 23, in a boating accident at Deaver Reservoir.

Hoffman moved to Lovell in 1994 after practicing medicine in Riverton for five years. He worked for North Big Horn Hospital until 2013, when he opened his own private practice on Main Street with his longtime colleague and nurse, Betty Snyder, with whom he had worked at the hospital for years.

He retired some three years ago.

Snyder remembered her friend and colleague fondly this week.

“He was a very gifted, talented surgeon, very compassionate, very caring, very understanding,” Snyder said. “I mean, basically the guy had a heart of gold.

“He just had a way with patients. I don’t know how to explain it. Like, if he had to give someone the news that, say, he did a colonoscopy and they have colon cancer, and then, you know you’re going to have to go to Billings and see an oncologist, it hurt him. Hurt him just as bad as the patients. You could see it in his face. He was also great with kids.”

Hoffman would even make house calls, Snyder said.

“We had elderly patients that were too sick to come in, and he’d pack up with, I think, his grandfather’s medical bag, an old medical bag, and he’d make house calls. He did that quite often. We never turned a patient down.

“Nowadays, you call up and ask for an appointment because you’re sick and they give you a week out. We said, ‘Come on down. We’ll get you in.’

“He just reminds me of a good, old fashioned hometown doctor. You know, you don’t see those anymore. You really don’t.”

Likewise, Dr. Hoffman fought to get patients timely appointments with a specialist in Billings when he believed time was of the essence, Snyder said, and she said he was a mentor to younger providers when he worked at the hospital.

Hoffman lived life to the fullest, Snyder said, noting that he “just loved the outdoors.” She recalled his adventures boating, kayaking and dirt-biking, and she said he was generous to her family, sometimes including them on his outings.

“He was just a great guy,” she said.

The accident

According to reporting by the Powell Tribune, Dr. Hoffman was sailing at the Deaver Reservoir late Wednesday afternoon when a gust of wind apparently caused his boat to capsize, sending him into the water, according to Monte McClain of the Park County Sheriff’s Office.

Hoffman was wearing a personal flotation device, and two paddleboarders came to his aid. However, while they were attempting to help Hoffman right the boat, he suddenly became unresponsive, McClain said. Authorities believe Hoffman suffered a cardiac event.

The paddleboarders quickly got him to shore and began CPR. Deaver-Frannie Fire Department first responders also arrived quickly to assist, but neither they nor responding deputies and EMS personnel were able to revive him, McClain said. He was transported to the Powell ER where he was ultimately pronounced deceased.

Park County Coroner Cody Gortmaker said that, given the circumstances, the death was ruled to be a drowning.

Services for David Hoffman will be held Monday, Aug. 4, at 2 p.m. at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Lovell. He is survived by his wife, Dawn, children Elizabeth Ann, Jack Travis, Abigail Dawn and Thomas Morris and seven grandchildren.