Dec. 21, 2020, GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- Start at Grand Rapids Community College and go anywhere! Every former student has a story to tell about how GRCC – or Grand Rapids Junior College – gave them the education and opportunity to be successful. We’re sharing some of those stories, and want to hear yours!
After graduating from high school, Dirk Hoffius headed to Brown University.
Then he got a notice from the school that he couldn’t come back.
“I had to rethink my life,” Hoffius said.
He enrolled at Grand Rapids Junior College in 1962 and decided that this time, it was going to be different.
“One of the first classes I took was political science with a teacher named Miss Geraldine Masters,” he said. “I vowed that day that she was never, ever going to catch me unprepared. And I applied that to every other class -- and I did well in all the other classes.”
Hoffius earned a bachelor’s degree from Colgate University and a law degree from the University of Virginia. He joined Varnum LLP, where he still works. He served as a trustee for the Grand Rapids Bar Association and on the State Bar of Michigan’s Crossroads Task Force on Judicial Reform. He is also a past chairman of the State Bar’s Probate and Estate Planning Council.
But Hoffius has always made space in his busy law career to serve the community he loves.
His passion for improving Grand Rapids and serving the people who call it home can be seen in the Downtown Market, the Salvation Army Kroc Center and many other much-loved institutions.
His community service includes memberships on the boards for the Downtown Market, the Grand Rapids Art Museum, Frederik Meijer Gardens, the Grand Rapids Public Library Foundation and the Grand Rapids Community Foundation.
He worked on the capital campaigns for the UICA and Kroc Center and was a member of the Kendall College of Art and Design’s board of trustees from 1982 to 1991, serving as chairman from 1987 to 1989.
The Council of Michigan Foundations recognized his service with the 2013 Community Foundation Philanthropy Award.
Hoffius, GRCC’s 2016 Distinguished alumnus, is listed among The Best Lawyers in America for trusts and estates and served as a Fellow in the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel.
He said he’s amazed at where his education has taken him: “Grand Rapids Community College is a great place to start, and it’s a great place to start over, and it will give you a core foundation and a balance.”