Robert Hoffman

Robert Kenneth Hoffman (July 18, 1947 – August 20, 2006) was an American businessman and philanthropist, most notable for co-founding the influential humor magazine National Lampoon. Life and career Hoffman was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the son of Adelyn J. and Edmund M. Hoffman. He graduated from the St. Mark's School of Texas in 1965. While a senior at Harvard, he was one of the three editors of The Harvard Lampoon who went on to co-found the National Lampoon in 1970. He served as its first managing editor. In 1975 he sold his share and used the proceeds to buy a Helen Frankenthaler painting. Hoffman left the National Lampoon to attend the Harvard Business School as a Baker Scholar, graduating in 1972. After graduation, he joined his father, Edmund, in the company that became the Coca-Cola Bottling Group (Southwest) Inc. The two helped build it into the country's fifth-largest Coca-Cola bottler before selling it in 1998. Hoffman chaired the Dallas Plan, a 30-year blueprint for reshaping the city of Dallas, which had been unanimously adopted by the City Council in December 1994. He also served as board chairman of the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Society for a critical five years beginning in 1987.