Individual Details

Death

Virginia L. Coffman, 85, a former Tracy resident who was the first woman to serve as a trustee of the Tracy High district and was an active advocate for education in Tracy, died Saturday morning in Monterey. A Carmel resident for the past 12 years, she had been hospitalized for a month and died in Monterey Convalescent Hospital. She was born in Cicero, Ill., and moved with her family to La Canada near Los Angeles in 1930. In 1934 the family moved to the Vernalis area, where her father, Alfred Pinkert, purchased a farm. Mrs. Coffman graduated from Tracy High in 1936 as class salutatorian and graduated from Modesto Junior College two years later. After working in San Francisco, she returned to Tracy in 1940, when she married Waldo Coffman, a Tracy real estate broker and owner of Coffman Realty. In 1957, Mrs. Coffman was elected a trustee of the Tracy Joint Union High School District, the first woman to hold that position. As clerk of the board in 1962, she and Merrill F. West, board president, played leading roles in working with trustees of the Tracy Elementary School District to establish a common administration for both districts and in hiring James R. French of Dinuba as the first joint superintendent. In 1964, she was Tracy area co-chairman with John Miller in successfully backing the formation of the San Joaquin Delta Community College District. Before then, the community college had been operated by the Stockton Unified School District. After three terms, Mrs. Coffman retired from the Tracy High board in 1969, but continued her support for education. A member of the Tracy Woman's Club and the First United Methodist Church, she enjoyed traveling throughout the world. In the 1970s, she attended California State University, Hayward, and earned a bachelor's degree. Following the death of her husband in 1989, Mrs. Coffman moved to Carmel in 1992. She continued to maintain close ties with friends in Tracy. Survivors include a daughter, Suellen Poggi of Rome; three sons, Charles Coffman of Perth, Australia, James Coffman of Davis and John Coffman of Marina; nine grandchildren; four great-grandchildren; a sister, Fern Williams of Modesto; and a brother, Alfred Pinkert of Modesto. She was preceded in death by her husband, Waldo H. Coffman, and a sister, Lorraine Claypool. Memorial services for Mrs. Coffman will be held in Marina and Tracy. Dates and locations will be announced later. The family prefers memorial contributions to the charity of the donor's choice.
Tracy Press, Tracy California, November 1, 2004