David C. Hoffmire
David C. Hoffmire, 50, died Sunday, May 11, 2008, of esophageal cancer. Hoffman, a contractor, was the son of Jeanne and the late John Hoffmire. He grew up in Tiburon and attended local schools.
A service will be held on Saturday, May 17 at 4:30 p.m. at Community Congregational Church at the top of Rock Hill Road in Tiburon. A full obituary will appear in the May 21 issue of The Ark.
Margaret (“Margie”) E. Wiegandt
Margaret E. Wiegandt, a longtime Tiburon resident with a big heart, died Thursday, May 1, 2008, at Kaiser Hospital in Terra Linda of a stroke following brain injuries
sustained in a fall three weeks earlier at her home in The Hilarita. She was 72.
The daughter of John and Ida Thomson, she was born and raised in the Ridgewood neighborhood of Queens, New York City. After graduating from high school, she worked in Manhattan for a brief time before meeting Bernhardt Wiegandt, who she married in1956. In 1963, she and her husband and their two children, Joanne and Bernie, moved to Tiburon. A third child, Ellen, was born here and all three attended Reed district elementary schools and Redwood High School.
Ms. Wiegandt joined Westminster Presbyterian Church after moving here and was a very active member of the congregation for 45 years. She sang in the choir for decades, taught Sunday School, was the church historian and was a church deacon. “Her hobby was the church,” said her son, Bernie.
Westminster Pastor Douglas Huneke agreed, calling Ms. Wiegandt “incredibly active in the church, filling numerous roles. With her hats, buttons and vests, she was the most colorful member of the congregation. She had buttons for every cause you can imagine — human rights, poverty, gay rights, hunger relief, she was right there, ready to go. She always walked the Human Race, one of her great causes, and she put the arm on everybody to sponsor her.
“When you’ve had a tough life,” he continued, “it can either sour you or make you more sensitive. In her case, it made her infinitely more sensitive and incredibly alert to violations of human rights.”
Ms. Wiegandt and her husband divorced in the early 1980s. She worked for several businesses on the Tiburon Peninsula: first Musso’s Bakery, then Standard 5 & 10, St. Hilary Church Convent, Marin Convalescent Hospital and finally, Main Street Properties where she staffed the parking booths at the Main Street and Beach Road lots until last year. For a while, she also distributed the Commuter Times on the ferryboats and became acquainted with many commuters.
“Being here in Tiburon was her life,” said her son. “She was fiercely independent and adamant about wanting to live on her own. Her employment was a means to that end. And she was very specific about not wanting to join us, her kids, in Tucson, Arizona in retirement.”
Her son called her “an unassuming, quiet person who took seriously her responsibilities to her fellow man and to the world at large. There was virtually no tree she couldn’t hug. She was concerned about the needy, the hungry and the helpless. She committed her energy and she acted.”
In 2004 Wiegandt was given a Paul Harris Fellowship by the Sunset Rotary Club for outstanding volunteer service. She was the first non-Rotary member to receive the award. Among the many organizations listed to which she gave her time and support were Tiburon Ecumenical Housing, the Hot Meal Program for the Poor, Habitat for Humanity and Bread for the World. “The amount of charity work she did was just amazing,” said Rotary member Chris Morrison.
Her survivors include two daughters, Joanne (Michael) Patterson, Ellen (John) Hudson and a son, Bernie (Wally) Wiegandt, all of Tucson, Arizona; a brother Robert (Mildred) Thomson of San Bernardino; and three grandchildren, Michael Patterson Jr. of Tucson, Amanda Allen of Safford, Arizona; and Kyle Wiegandt of Tucson.
A memorial service is planned for Saturday, June 7 at 2 p.m. at Westminster Presbyterian Church.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations in her memory be made to the Westminster Presbyterian Church Legacy Fund, 240 Tiburon Blvd., Tiburon, CA 94920.