David C. Hoefner, retired energy executive, sculptor, and caregiver, has died at 77

David C. Hoefner, 77, of Philadelphia, retired executive for Ogden, Covanta, PECO and Excelon energy companies, longtime caregiver, sculptor, volunteer, and inspirational classmate at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, died Sunday, Jan. 7, of Lewy body dementia and Alzheimer’s disease with Parkinsonism at Arden Courts ProMedica Memory Care Community in Hatboro.

Mr. Hoefner worked 30 years in the 1970s, ‘80s, and ‘90s for energy and waste management firms as a consultant, program manager, strategy manager, and in other executive roles. He retired in 2002 after his first wife, MaryLou, fell seriously ill with frontotemporal dementia.

He became her full-time caregiver at home, registered for stone carving classes at PAFA to keep his long-simmering creative spirit aflame, and helped another artist in personal transition find his niche and create a masterpiece that honors their friendship. “He was a caring person who took every obstacle thrown his way and handled it graciously without complaint,” said his son David Jr.

Mr. Hoefner cared for his first wife daily until her death in 2011, and family and friends marveled at his tireless devotion. The couple lived in Center City, Springfield in Delaware County, and Glen Mills, and were close to their son and two grandsons.

Eager to help others in similar circumstances during his wife’s illness, Mr. Hoefner volunteered at Penn Medicine to raise awareness and funds for neurodegenerative disease research. He joined the external advisory board of the Institute on Aging at the University of Pennsylvania in 2010 and established the Cure Dementia Fund of the Philadelphia Foundation after his wife died.

“I wanted to do my part to help work for a solution,” Mr. Hoefner said in a 2019 online interview with the Institute on Aging. “I grew up in the generation where we believed if we are not part of the solution, we are part of the problem.”

Fund officials said recently that Cure Dementia had raised more than $90,000 for Penn’s Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research. Mr. Hoefner also donated his body to Penn researchers.

At PAFA, Mr. Hoefner finished two paintings and created unique stone carvings of animals and human figures. One of his most engaging pieces, “Evolution,” is a vertical stone that features fish at the bottom that morph into birds and trees at the top.

He met Louise Quattrone online in 2012, and they married in 2013, and lived in Center City. She said it was his kindness and selflessness in caring for his first wife all those years that drew her to him. “I thought that any man who did that is a good man,” she said.

Mr. Hoefner was diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment a few years after his second marriage, and the couple adjusted to his deteriorating condition over the years. He finally stopped sculpting in 2020.

It was during a brief exchange in an elevator on their way to class at PAFA in the early 2000s that Julio Galvez told Mr. Hoefner that he might quit dentistry to become a sculptor. Mr. Hoefner, having recently retired and embraced stone carving himself, encouraged Galvez, and Galvez never forgot the good advice.

Later, after Mr. Hoefner donated his tools and unfinished stones to PAFA, Galvez, then working toward a master’s degree, wound up with part of Mr. Hoefner’s stone. Remembering the inspiring words from their random meeting years earlier, Galvez dedicated a new piece to Mr. Hoefner and created “Kindred Spirits.”

The sculpture shows two abstract human heads merging together in what appears to be a meeting of the minds. “They’re in communication with each other, demonstrating that there is no singular definition to friendship,” Galvez told Meghan McCarthy of the Penn Memory Center in an online story.

The sculpture resides in the permanent collection at the Woodmere Art Museum, and Mr. Hoefner’s professor at PAFA said in a tribute: “His intelligence, his warm manner, and especially his delightful sense of humor made him extraordinary to know and work with.”

David Charles Hoefner was born Oct. 20, 1946. He grew up in Upper Darby, graduated from Springfield High School in Delaware County in 1964, and earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering and master’s degree in business administration at Penn Morton College, now Widener University.

He married MaryLou Milanese in 1969, and they had son David.

Mr. Hoefner watched the History Channel on TV and liked to paint, ski, sail, and fish. He was an avid reader, engaging conversationalist, and lifelong learner. “As we are all aging,” he told Penn researchers in 2019, “I wanted to keep abreast of the latest strategies for healthy living.”

His wife said: “His generous spirit to the very end brought him full circle in making a difference in the world.”

In addition to his wife, son, and grandsons, Mr. Hoefner is survived by other relatives.

Services are to be held later.

Donations in his name may be made to the Cure Dementia Fund at the Philadelphia Foundation, Box 826728, Philadelphia, Pa. 19182.