Laura Hoffman Obituary, Death – On March 27, 1987, Laura Hagen Hoffman entered the world at Poudre Valley Hospital, which is located in Fort Collins, Colorado. She passed away at her home in Longmont, Colorado on April 23, 2020 from cancer of the stomach. Her age was 33 at the time. Laura’s love of learning and the natural world lasted her entire life. She completed her high school education at Poudre High School, where she was awarded her diploma from the International Baccalaureate program in 2005 and where she also remodeled a Chevrolet Blazer as her final project. During her time in school, Laura was an active member of 4-H, where she bred and exhibited champion chickens and steers.
In 2009, she received a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Oregon State University. She also completed a minor in Chemistry during her time there. Additionally, she received a certification in Marine Biology from the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport. While she was in college, she developed a taste for craft beer and made many friends who will remain in her life for the rest of her life. After graduating from college, Laura relocated to Salt Lake City and found work in the electron microscopy research department at the University of Utah Health Science Center. In 2012, she made the decision to fulfill her long-held goals to both teach and travel, and she applied to and was accepted into the teaching program at the Immaculata Bilingual School in Hinojosa del Duque, Spain for the duration of one year.
After moving back to Colorado, she obtained a position as the Base Camp Director at Laurel Elementary School while attending Colorado State University to complete her Master of Education degree. When she was first diagnosed with cancer in January of 2018, she was in the midst of completing her dissertation at the University of Northern Colorado in the field of education. Laura had a deep, abiding passion for education and for her students. Before transferring to Longmont High School to teach Biology and Chemistry during the previous academic year, she was a science teacher at Thunder Valley K-8, which is located in Frederick, Colorado. Due to the nature of her teaching schedule, she was able to continue traveling in spite of her illness. Laura had an insatiable appetite for learning new things about the world. She recently returned from a trip in which she visited Japan, Columbia, and Spain.
