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By Brent Hoffmann, Class of 2005

On their second date, Jeff took his future wife Linda for a walk and a picnic in Graceland Cemetery, at his gravesite.  “It seemed appropriate because Graceland is designed like a park,” he said.  “But the groundskeeper shooed us away.  It was a little weird, but Linda married me anyway.”  Said Linda, “Actually, dinner and a movie would have been more appropriate.”

Co-director of the Graceland tour, Jeff owns a plot in the cemetery, near Louis Sullivan’s grave.  “I plan to design a ledger stone for my grave that incorporates a map of the cemetery,” said Jeff.  “It will include an arrow pointing to the location on the map, with the inscription ‘You are here.’  It will be a service to wanderers who might be lost.  And after I’m gone, I’ll have the parenthetic ‘and I am, too’ added.”

Jeff loves cemeteries.  He’s led tours of Rosehill, north of Graceland, and of Oak Woods on Chicago’s south side.  “The carved Bedford limestone trees in Rosehill are wonderful for the way they tell very particular stories,” said Jeff.  “One tree marks the grave of a young artist.  It includes a torn canvas carved in limestone.”

He is also interested in modernism and leads bus tours to Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House in Plano, as well as the Mies and Modernism tour of the Illinois Tech (formerly known as IIT) campus.  “Mies is buried in Graceland,” he pointed out.  “His monument is a simple one designed by his grandson Dirk Lohan that exemplifies Mies’ slogan ‘less is more’.”

Recovering Attorney
“I tell my financial planning clients that I’m a recovering attorney,” he continued.  Jeff earned his JD degree at the National Law Center of George Washington University, following a BA in political science, also at GWU in Washington, D.C.  Jeff remained in D.C. for his first law job with the U.S. Department of Transportation.  “After a few years, I moved to Chicago to work in the legal department of the Illinois Central Railroad.”

After retiring from the railroad, Jeff became a certified financial planner and accepted a position with A.G. Edwards & Sons.  He’s now the vice president of investments with the Junkins Mercer Wealth Management Group of Wells Fargo Advisors.  Explained Jeff, “I work with a team of professionals to offer my clients comprehensive planning and investment advice.  I also help clients develop retirement plans.”

Collects Art
An avid collector of contemporary art, Jeff is a member of the Society for Contemporary Art at the Art Institute of Chicago.  He also is a board member and the treasurer of the Chicago chapter of the International Committee for Documentation and Conservation of Buildings of the Modernist Movement.  “We just call it DOCOMOMO for short,” he said.  “It’s a not-for-profit organization that advocates for the preservation of modernist architecture.”

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