Hoboken resident Otto Hottendorf, who passed away last week, was a true Renaissance man who loved to bowl, but loved to read even more.
“He believed in the power of reading,” said his son Joseph Hottendorf on Thursday. “Every subject that you could possibly think of, at some point, he read a book about it.”
Hottendorf, who spent his entire 95 years in Hoboken (69 of them married to his wife Catherine), was one of the city’s most ardent supporters of education, especially when it came to the public schools.
Hottendorf was appointed to the Hoboken Board of Education in 1951, where he served for 38 years as one of the longest tenured members in the state. He served as the board’s president for seven years and was instrumental, as the board’s athletic chair, in building a swimming pool at Hoboken High School in 1961.
All of his children attended public school, and as a member of the Board of Education, he had the opportunity to personally hand each of them their diplomas.
Read and wrote
Hottendorf’s passion for reading spread beyond his own home. His son Joseph, who is vice-president of the Hudson County Board of Realtors, told of a time when books were stacked all about the house in every conceivable nook and cranny. “My mother told him that there wasn’t room for even one more book,” he said. “So he took the whole bunch and donated them [to the library].”
Throughout his life, said the Hottendorf family, Otto was continually donating books and championing the importance of reading. In 1991, Hoboken High School’s library was renamed in his honor.
His love of academia and his devotion to his religion (he was a long-time parishioner of St. Francis Church) made him somewhat of a minor celebrity in the Letters to the Editor section of this newspaper. Hottendorf wrote numerous letters to the paper to say that Einstein’s Theory of Relativity proved that the God created the universe. Not everyone agreed with Hottendorf’s reasoning, but the letters, filled with mathematics formulas and esoteric thoughts, began a running dialogue.
Bowling for Hoboken
Hottendorf was also a highly skilled bowler. The last game he ever bowled was 207 at the age of 94. “He ended the game with five strikes [in a row],” recalled Joseph Hottendorf.
Otto also had fondness for Hoboken. “His favorite song was ‘I was Born in Hoboken,’ ” said Joseph. “He would sing that song more than anyone I’ve ever know.”
Joseph added that Otto was esteemed by nearly everyone he met. “Anybody that didn’t like my dad had to be a jerk,” he said. “He was just that good of a guy. He was a man of the highest standards who loved his family and friends, and they loved him.”
Otto Hottendorf was a member of the St. Francis Holy Name Society; the Hoboken Troys S & A; the Hoboken Elks Lodge 74; the Hoboken Knights of Columbus; the Madison Social Club; the Mike Borelli Association; and the Steve Capiello Association. He was also a past member of the Hudson County Interathletic Association. For his professional career he worked as a foreman for a meat packing company. He started in the industry as a teenager during the Great Depression and didn’t retire until he was 79.
Surviving are his wife, Catherine (Cervelli); two sons, Otto and Joseph Hottendorf; a daughter, Catherine Mascis; a brother, Henry; a sister, Christina Farba; eight grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.