Retired KION weatherman Norm Hoffmann now forecasts fellowship for other seniors.

IF ANYONE WANTED TO FIND NORM HOFFMANN AS A BOY OF ABOUT 12, THEY COULD ALWAYS CHECK THE CHURCH ROOF. His father was the minister – his mother the choir director and organist – at an American Lutheran Church in Woodland, located in the Central Valley. The rooftop was the perfect perch to watch the clouds roll by or any thunderstorms developing on the horizon.

“I started as a history major in college but I always said I had my head in the clouds,” says Hoffmann, 72. He got a degree in meteorology from San Jose State University in 1969.

Longtime Monterey Bay TV news watchers know Hoffmann as a former meteorologist for KION, but television did not come until later in life. Up for the draft in the Vietnam War, Hoffmann enlisted in the U.S. Air Force as a weather officer. After three-and-a-half years he left the service so he and his wife Jean and their two boys wouldn’t have to move often. Ironically, his next job led to 11 moves in 25 years as a meteorologist for the National Weather Service. Finally in 1994, Hoffmann was tasked with moving the Redwood City office to Monterey County and Jean said, “That’s it!”

Hoffmann retired from the NWS in February 2002. He gave Jim Vanderzwan, the KSBW meteorologist a call, as well as KION newscaster Barry Brown. He had already filled in for a vacationing weathercaster in the Bay Area, and done some NWS training videos. By May he was working weekends for KION, and a couple of years later he was working full time during the week.

“I fell naturally into it,” Hoffmann says.

He had retired from KION in 2015 so he and Jean could help care for their oldest son, Sean, as he was dying from cancer. After Sean passed away in 2016, Senior Pastor Mike Ladra of Compass Church in Salinas asked Hoffmann to help develop the senior ministry program.

Together with Jean, Hoffmann did, and he’s now director of Senior Adult Ministries at Compass; of the church’s 3,000 members, 950 are age 55 and above.

The Hoffmanns discovered early on that those in the 55-65 age range didn’t want to be known as “seniors,” so they changed names and developed new programs. There’s a social group called Boomers, and the PACESetters (Praise, Action, Caring & Evangelism), which brings in experts speaking on topics of interest to older adults. The Hoffmanns also visit homebound members and people in the hospital, and Hoffmann leads worship at the church’s Padre campus, which features hymns and an organ that older churchgoers grew up with, in contrast to the main sanctuary’s modern style.

“I find that when people are lonely, they tend to go downhill quicker,” Hoffmann says. “They need to be engaged with family members and its important the church be a part of this.”

Hoffmann’s head is still in the clouds, however: He regularly posts weather updates to his Facebook page.