Harold G. Hoffman

Harold Giles Hoffman (February 7, 1896 – June 4, 1954) was an American businessman and Republican Party politician who served as the 41st Governor of New Jersey from 1935 to 1938. His time in office was marked by controversy over his support for a sales tax and interference in the Lindbergh kidnapping case. He died while subject to an investigation for embezzlement from his bank and the state government, which he confessed to his daughter before his death.

Hoffman also served two terms representing Middlesex, Monmouth, and Ocean counties (as New Jersey's 3rd congressional district) in the United States House of Representatives from 1927 to 1931, represented Middlesex in the New Jersey General Assembly, and served as mayor of South Amboy.

Harold Giles Hoffman was born on February 7, 1896, in South Amboy, New Jersey, to Frank Hoffman and Ada Crawford Thom. His mother was the daughter of the painter James Crawford Thom and the granddaughter of Scottish sculptor James Thom. His father's ancestors included the earliest European settlers in New Amsterdam from Sweden and Dutch nobility.

Hoffman attended public schools and worked as a local newspaper reporter while still in high school. Upon graduating from South Amboy High School in 1913, he joined the Perth Amboy Evening News as a full-time employee, becoming assistant city editor and sports editor. He left the newspaper after a dispute with the owner and worked at the Du Pont Laboratory in Parlin.

Hoffman enlisted in the Third Infantry of the New Jersey National Guard on July 25, 1917, 3 months after the United States declaration of war on Germany. The division soon became the 114th Infantry of the 29th Division of the American Expeditionary Forces.

He saw action in the Meuse-Argonne offensive and was promoted to captain on the battlefield before returning home. He was eventually discharged in 1946 with the rank of lieutenant colonel.

After World War I, Hoffman returned to South Amboy and became an executive with the South Amboy Trust Company. Over the next decades, he built a career as a prominent South Amboy businessman, serving as vice president of the Trust Company, president of a real estate corporation, president of a mortgage company, treasurer of another realty and investment corporation, and director of a building and loan association. He became well known throughout the state banking community.

Hoffman was engaged in South Amboy and Middlesex County Republican Party politics from an early age.^[when?] He was appointed treasurer of South Amboy and entered elected office as an Assemblyman in 1923.