FOSTORIA — The Rev. Richard E. Hofmann, a Lutheran pastor of churches in northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan, who preached concern for those in need and demonstrated concern by visiting the ill and supporting peace and social justice causes, died Thursday in Good Shepherd Home, Fostoria. He was 81.

He had frontal lobe dementia, and as it advanced, he had to give up even the retirement role he had in ministry, his wife, Judith, said.

“He loved his work, and he couldn’t do it any more, though he wanted to continue to do it,” his wife said.

He retired in 1999 after 12 years as pastor of Hope Lutheran Church in Fostoria. Afterward, he was an interim pastor at Pemberville-area congregations, Holy Spirit Shared Ministry and St. Paul Lutheran Church. At First Lutheran Church in Tiffin, he was visitation minister. He occasionally preached, but most often visited people who were ill or homebound. Pastor Hofmann also began a weekly men’s Bible study at First Lutheran.

“He always had a good little story to share with people, and a nice introduction to it,” said Ray Wise of First Lutheran.

He put study and research into his sermons, his wife said.

He was a 1960 graduate of Trinity Seminary in Columbus and was ordained into the American Lutheran Church, now the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. He served churches in Beaver Falls., Pa., and then Blissfield, Mich. In 1967, while Pastor Hofmann served a white congregation in Dearborn, Mich., he and his wife adopted a 3-month-old biracial boy.

“His adoption was not free of opposition or difficulty for the family and for me,” Pastor Hofmann told The Blade in 2012. “But nevertheless, in spite of it, I’d do it all over again. It was such a joyful experience with him, it really was. Besides that, it was a very important episode in the life of the church to finally wake up and find out that there are other people than simply white people for our churches.”

The family moved to northwest Detroit, where Pastor Hofmann served a congregation for five years, but churches were reluctant to offer him a call, his wife said. He did other jobs — insurance, counseling in a hospital — until his call to Hope Lutheran in Fostoria. Their son Kevin has written a book about his experiences, Growing Up Black In White.

Pastor Hofmann was born Feb. 2, 1934, in Cleveland to Louise and Henry Hofmann, who were German immigrants. He didn’t speak English until he went to school. “It was coming from that place, where you’re treated as the different one, that's where his heart for social justice came from,” his son Kevin said.

He was a graduate of West Tech High School, Cleveland, and Capital University in Bexley, Ohio. He later received a degree in marriage and family counseling from the University of Detroit.

Surviving are his wife, Judith, whom he married Aug. 20, 1960; daughter, Lisa Beal; sons Richard A., Paul, and Kevin Hofmann; brother, Gordon Hofmann; eight grandchildren, and a great-granddaughter.

Visitation is 3-5 p.m. Monday in the Mann-Hare-Hoening Funeral Home, Fostoria. Services will be at 11 a.m. Tuesday in First Lutheran Church, Tiffin, where the body will be after 9:30 a.m.

The family suggests tributes to ELCA World Hunger; Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service; Lutheran World Relief, or the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Contact Mark Zaborney at: mzaborney@theblade.com or 419-724-6182.

First Published April 5, 2015, 4:24 a.m.