After a very brief stay in Mercy Hospital, Laura O. Hoffman of Dubuque passed quickly and peacefully on September 30, 2023. Services will be held at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Dubuque, 1699 Iowa Street, on November 11, 2023 at 11:00 a.m. Behr Funeral Home is assisting the family.

Born in Omaha to Ted and Mary Turner of Corning, Iowa on November 9, 1940, Laura Hoffman spent her childhood in the idyll of Iowa. After graduating from Monmouth College (Illinois) in 1963, she joined the Peace Corps, and lived and taught for two years in Thailand with her husband Ron Hoffman. Upon returning to the U.S., they started a family and both pursued advanced degrees over the next several years. After her divorce in 1991, she completed her PhD in Education, with a focus on children’s literacy. She taught several years at Northern Michigan University before becoming an Associate Professor at Clarke College in 1998. In Dubuque she was close to her siblings and found community in the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Dubuque, as well as being active in various groups and projects, including the League of Women Voters, the Presentation Lantern Center and the St. Patrick’s Wednesday night meal.

She is survived by her children, Cassandra (Jörg Pieper) and Benjamin (Beth Watson), her sisters, Jane Cooper (Phil) and Cathy Remington (Steven), her sister-in-law Lynn Turner, and her three beloved grandchildren, Leander, Adah and Lucille.

She was preceded in death by her twin sister, Elizabeth Turner Platt and her brother, Theodore Baker Turner III.

Charitable donations in honor of Laura’s memory may be made to either the St. Patrick’s Wednesday night meal or to the Presentation Lantern Center.

Online condolences may be left for the family at www.behrfuneralhome.com