Merrill Hoffman, 1934-2009

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By Hoffman Family

Longtime owner of Santa Barbara Locksmith, community leader and decorated Navy veteran died after a brief illness

Merrill Hoffman, a decorated Navy veteran, world traveler and longtime Santa Barbara businessman, died November 30 after a brief illness. He was 75.

Born in Massachusetts on November 22, 1934, Merrill left home at the age of 16 to seek his fortune. Traveling cross country he worked in a logging camp in Klamath, California.

A lifetime lover of the sea, Merrill decided to enlist in the Navy after visiting the USS Constitution (Old Ironsides) at the Charlestown, Massachusetts, Navy Yard, near Boston.

Hoping to be a pilot, Merrill’s eyesight prevented him from qualifying for that level of flight status, but undaunted, he got into the cockpit another way: as an avionics engineer and navigator.

After completing his basic training at Bainbridge, Maryland, in July 1952 he went to AT-A School in Memphis, Tennessee, and by July 1953 he was in an Air Anti Submarine Squadron at Quonset Point Naval Air Station in Rhode Island.

By the late 1950s he had risen to the rank of chief petty officer and began serving as an electronics and avionics specialist with a series of attack squadrons aboard aircraft carriers, including the USS Oriskany, the USS Midway, the USS Valley Forge and the USS Antietam.

He saw so much air duty during this period that, at one point, he set a personal record for 10 catapult launches and landings before breakfast.

In 1954, Merrill married the former Arlene Witkowski of Clinton, Massachusetts. During the course of his naval service he served multiple tours off the coast of Vietnam, multiple cruises in the Mediterranean, as well as the Caribbean where he flew a number of missions in and out of the U.S. Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

In December 1963, he attended the State Department’s Foreign Service Institute School for Spanish Language Instruction.

From 1964 to 1968, Merrill was billeted to the U.S. Embassy in Quito, Ecuador, in support of the U.S. chief of mission, who was a direct liaison between the U.S. chief of naval operations and the Ecuadoran CNO.

During this duty, Merrill was part of a four-man flight crew and flew hundreds of missions throughout South America aboard a C-47, including multiple rescue missions in the Ecuadoran jungles and a series of clandestine operations for the Central Intelligence Agency.

In March 1968, Merrill was transferred to Albany, New York, where he became chief of the Branch Recruiting Station in Schenectady.

By February 1970, he served in VA-153, a Light Attack Squadron based at Lemoore Naval Air Station in California.

In 1971, rising to the rank of E 8 Master Chief, Merrill was in charge of the Avionics and Ordnance Divisions on his first combat cruise to Vietnam on the USS Oriskany. For this service Merrill received the Navy Achievement Medal and Navy Commendation Medal.

In 1972, after 20 years of naval service, Merrill moved to Santa Barbara with Arlene and their two children, Linda and Glenn.

With his mechanical and electronic skills, Merrill began working for Santa Barbara Locksmith, then owned by Milton Schmerzler. Virtually starting at the bottom, sweeping floors, he did an apprenticeship and eventually became a master locksmith.

By 1981, he had purchased the business and ran it successfully ever since, with premises at 636 Santa Barbara St.

Merrill was a past chairman of the Santa Barbara Chapter of the American Society for Industrial Security and a member of the Associated Locksmiths of America, the Safe & Vault Technicians Association and the National Safeman’s Organization. He later served as a subject matter expert for the State License Board in Sacramento.

But although he was now anchored in a single city after years of service across the globe, Merrill never lost his love of travel. He and Arlene visited more than a dozen countries, from India to Thailand.

On their 35th anniversary, Merrill asked his wife where she wanted to go and she told him Boston, near where she was born. Always one to think outside the box, but a bit disappointed at the domestic destination, he said, “OK, honey, as long as I can pick the route.”

At that point he mapped out a surprise round-the-world tour that took him and his wife to Japan, Egypt, Italy, and then on to Boston, and home.

In 1992, after Arlene’s untimely death from cancer, Hoffman met Paulette Cingolani, an administrative assistant. After a long courtship, they were married. While continuing to expand Santa Barbara Locksmith, Merrill and Paulette followed the tradition of globe-hopping that he’d begun with Arlene.

Their travels took them to 30 countries over the years, including Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Bermuda, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Peru and Ecuador in this hemisphere; England, France, Germany, Denmark Russia and Finland, Turkey, Cypress, Egypt in Europe; in the Middle East; and Hong Kong, Bali, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia in the Far East.

Merrill wrote dozens of technical articles for several magazines in the security field, including Safe & Vault Technology, the official publication of the Safe & Vault Technicians Association. He was an expert safecracker and had a national reputation for opening safes.

On July 18, Merrill was featured at Barnes & Noble on State Street during a taping by C-SPAN2 for its Book TV program.

Merrill was the past president of Rotary Club of Santa Barbara, president of the Shrine Club, a board member of the Channel Islands YMCA, a board member for Adventures in Caring, a board member of Santa Barbara Partners in Education, past chapter chairman of the American Society for Industrial Security, and a member of the Santa Barbara Council of the Navy League of the United States. He was also a member of Mensa, the society of the highly gifted.

He is survived by his daughter, Linda Najera, of Prescott Valley, Arizona; Glenn Hoffman of Santa Barbara, his son and a granddaughter, Shauna Hoffman, a student at Santa Barbara City College. Another granddaughter, Veronica, passed away in August 2009.

At his request, Merrill’s remains will be cremated and scattered at sea. A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, December 19 at First Presbyterian Church, 21 E. Constance Ave. In lieu of flowers, please make donations to the Rotary Club of Santa Barbara Charitable Foundation, the Visiting Nurse and Hospice Care of Santa Barbara or the Channel Islands YMCA.

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