Obituary: Robert K. Hoffman

* Robert K. Hoffman, managing editor, philanthropist. Died aged 59.

Robert K. Hoffman, one of three founders of the irreverent National Lampoon magazine, has died aged 59. Hoffman, a noted philanthropist, had been suffering from leukaemia since December. He was a co-founder and managing editor of the humorous National Lampoon, spawned from the Harvard Lampoon, created while he was a student at the university. He graduated cum laude in 1970 and received an MBA from Harvard Business School. The magazine spun off successful films, the best known being Animal House. "National Lampoon never would have happened, and none of the things that came out of it would have happened, without Robert," Henry Beard, a co-founder of the magazine, told the Dallas Morning News. "He had an exceptional pair of talents - he was extremely smart, and utterly fearless." Hoffman was named one of Business Week magazine's top 50 philanthropists for 2005. A longtime art collector, he and his wife, Marguerite, in March gave 224 works of art valued at US$150 million ($238.3 million) to the Dallas Museum of Art.

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