Winifred “Winnie” M. Koffenberger

Winifred M. Koffenberger, died on November 19th at Christiana Hospital, of Covid-19. She was 93 and lived at Cokesbury Village, Hockessin, Delaware.

Born on November 29, 1926 in South Amboy, New Jersey, Winnie was the daughter of Helen Rickards Morford and Charles Dugan Morford of Wilmington, Delaware.

Winnie met the love of her life, Ed Koffenberger, at P.S. DuPont High School when she was 16 years old. When Ed went to college, Winnie stayed in Wilmington and went to what is now Goldey-Beacom College. On Ed’s graduation from Duke University in 1947, the two married and were together for 66 years, until Ed’s death in 2014. They had five children.

Ed’s work for DuPont took the couple and their growing family to Richmond, Virginia, Camden, South Carolina, Wilmington, Delaware, Signal Mountain, Tennessee, and finally back to Newark, Delaware in 1971. In one 3-year period, the family moved three times. With each move, Winnie got the children re-settled, and enthusiastically joined the local community. Winnie bowled in local leagues, played tennis, led cub scout troops, played in bridge clubs, cooked for petit dinner groups. Her faith was important to her and she served in many roles in the Presbyterian churches in those communities: Women’s Circle leader, and Sunday School teacher. Her empathy and kind-heartedness were channeled into her church responsibilities as a deacon, Shepherd, and a Stephen minister. She made friends for life in these different locations. In her later years, she regularly had lunch with dear friends she had made in the second grade.

Winnie had a profound, genuine and loving interest in other people. None felt this more than her own children to whose lives Winnie devoted so much energy and commitment. She did not miss a game that her children played in, sometimes attending two in a day. She seemed to be everywhere: carpooling, in the stands, at the school gates, nurturing and supporting the children’s friendships and activities. She had an encyclopedic memory of the details of the lives of those she loved. Her devotion to her family was fundamental to her life.

Originally said of someone else, but true of Winnie: “she would mother anyone too weak to resist”. Friends of the Koffenberger children, and later their spouses, also were gathered into Winnie’s all-encompassing warmth. Her grandchildren were a delight to her and she was a delight to them with her devilish sense of humor and her wraparound hugs.

Winnie’s involvement in high school sports and Ed’s very successful college basketball and lacrosse career led to a lifetime of interest in a variety of sports. Winnie was a devoted tennis, basketball and football fan. One of Ed and Winnie’s favorite activities in retirement was driving down to watch the Duke University basketball team play in Cameron Indoor Stadium. She and Ed were thrilled to get to Wimbledon one year.

Summer vacations and then whole summers were spent at their beach house in Sea Isle City, New Jersey, which became a hub for family gatherings and a refuge for friends and family needing the peace of a long walk on the beach.

Winnie leaves behind her five children and their spouses: Ed and Mary Ann Koffenberger, Barb and Ed Chilcoat, Laura and David Croom, Chuck Koffenberger and Susan Salvador, and Carol Koffenberger-Jones and Brian Jones. She is also mourned by her ten grandchildren: Chris Chilcoat, Matt Chilcoat and Katie Chilcoat Moonan, James Croom, Patrick Croom, and Zoe Croom, Taylor Koffenberger and Mackenzie Koffenberger, Alexander Jones and Zach Jones. She leaves three small great grandchildren too: Dash Croom, Ella and Eddie Moonan.

The family is holding a memorial service for Winnie at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, November 27th, 2021 at First Presbyterian Church in Newark, Delaware.  Donations should go to First Presbyterian Church, Newark, and/or to Prison Ministries of Delaware. Family and friends are welcome at a light lunch/reception in the Memorial Hall after the service. For the safety of everyone, we ask that masks are worn.