Neil P. Hoffmann, longtime Philadelphia architect and business rainmaker, has died at 82

Neil P. Hoffmann, 82, of Bryn Mawr, retired Philadelphia architect, business rainmaker, mentor, and lifelong golfer, died Wednesday, June 26, of cancer at the Quadrangle retirement community in Haverford.

Mr. Hoffmann studied under Louis I. Kahn, earned a master’s degree in architecture at the University of Pennsylvania in 1968, and spent the next four decades cementing big business deals on the golf course and completing impressive construction projects for Bell Telephone, McNeil Consumer Products, Lankenau Hospital, Penn, St. Joseph’s University, and other clients. He was a rainmaker — smart, engaging, and persuasive — for the Philadelphia design firm that was once called Francis Cauffman Foley Hoffmann, and he and partner Jim Foley helped run the company, known now as FCA, for 30 years.

Mr. Hoffmann was friendly, a good listener, and made personal connections easily, and his family said in a tribute: “His true office was the golf course. There, he would charm his clients.” The firm designed dozens of research centers, hospitals, offices, and other structures around the region, and he helped expand its architectural services into interior design, and science and technology support.

“Neil was a conciliator,” said Maryann Foley, wife of his late partner. “He had a way of bringing people together and taking the edge off things.”

The company’s staff grew to 100 in the 1980s and ‘90s and operated an office in Center City. Mr. Hoffmann retired in 2013.

He also served as president of the Carpenters’ Company of the City and County of Philadelphia in 2003, and was a member of the Pennsylvania Society of Architects, and the American Institute of Architects. It was with those groups that he forged deep business connections and acted as a pragmatic and positive mentor to young architects, engineers, designers, and marketers.

“He wasn’t afraid to speak the difficult facts, the uncomfortable truths that may have been holding his friends, family, or colleagues back,” said his son Richard. “He risked being labeled a grouch because he believed in his people and wanted them to excel, and had a sweet, soft heart that took great pride when they did.”

A golfer and outdoorsman since high school, Mr. Hoffmann enjoyed nature and the fellowship of walking a course, and he played hundreds of rounds with friends, colleagues, and clients at dozens of courses around the United States and in Ireland, England, Scotland, and Wales. “He was just fun to play with,” a longtime friend said in an online tribute.

He attended big golf events such as the Masters, U.S. Open, and PGA Championship with friends, and chaired local golf events as president of the Yale University Club of Philadelphia and a member of other groups. “Neil was not only a great golfing buddy, but a great friend,” a fellow golfer said online.

Neil Power Hoffmann was born May 28, 1942, in Chicago. He and his brother, Mark, and their parents lived in Chicago, Detroit, Cincinnati, Houston, and Dallas before settling in Fayetteville, N.Y., about 10 miles east of Syracuse.

He played soccer and golf at Jamesville-Dewitt High School and later at Yale, and earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture.

He married Nancy Everill in New York in 1966, and they had sons Carl, Richard, and Peter, and daughter Elizabeth. He and his wife moved to the Powelton Village section of Philadelphia when he attended Penn and lived later in Narberth and Bryn Mawr.

Mr. Hoffmann and his wife loved to travel, and they roamed around Europe for six weeks in 1967 and toured the United States in the spring of 1968. The family had a second home in Maine for years, and he hiked, camped, and sailed.

He went to Phillies games at Veterans Stadium, and he and his wife had season tickets to the Philadelphia Orchestra for 45 years. He was at the Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island in 1965 and usually had jazz, classical, folk, or rock music playing in the house.

He liked to read, was interested in the environment and climate change, and his family joked that he often took more photos of interesting buildings than of them on vacations. He told his family to stop buying him presents because he had everything he wanted, and they said he faced recent health challenges with his usual grace and poise.

“He made everybody feel at ease,” his daughter said.

In addition to his wife, children, and brother, Mr. Hoffmann is survived by five grandchildren and other relatives.

Private services are to be held later.

Donations in his name may be made to the Environmental Defense Fund, 257 Park Ave. South, 11th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10010; Green Building United, 1601 Market St., Suite 2270, Philadelphia, Pa. 19103; and the Damon Runyon Foundation, 1 Exchange Plaza, 55 Broadway, Suite 302, New York, N.Y. 10006.