Hilda Klingaman Imhoff, a Friends School of Baltimore English teacher who staged its plays and musicals, died of heart failure Dec. 17 at the Springwell Senior Living Community. She was 86 and a former Bolton Hill resident.

“She dedicated her life to shaping the hearts and minds of her students through literature, language and drama,” said her daughter, Jennifer Imhoff Foley.

Born in Albany, New York, she was the daughter of Olive and Roger Klingaman. Known as the “Sarah Bernhardt” of the senior class at the Milne School, a teaching training school in Albany, she had the starring role in the senior play and was one of the Albany winners of the statewide scholarship exams of the State Board of Regents.

She earned a degree in English composition and literature at Mount Holyoke College. She acted in drama productions all four years and was senior-year president of the Dramatic Club. She received a master’s degree from SUNY Albany.

In 1962, she married Ernest F. Imhoff, a Baltimore Evening Sun editor, and settled in Bolton Hill, where they raised their family. She worked in the box office at Baltimore Center Stage and regularly attended productions at the Totem Pole Playhouse.

“My mother brought Shakespeare, Dickens’ ‘Great Expectations,’ and the power of eloquence to life,” said her daughter.

Gary Blauvelt, a colleague, said, “She established the Shakespeare course as one of the cornerstones of our elective program. At first, I was skeptical. ‘Are you going to get kids to sign up for a semester of Shakespeare?’ She was enthusiastic, and it worked.”

He said she employed a performance approach to teaching plays. “Students would often say, ‘This is the first time I ever got into enjoying Shakespeare, understanding what it was all about.'”

He recalled her personality: “Hilda was definite. She was not shy. She had opinions and told you what they were without being offensive or grating.”

Each spring, Ms. Imhoff staged a musical, and one year did Cole Porter’s Anything Goes.

“She ended the first act with all dancing. She filled the stage with sailors and gangsters and dancing,” Mr. Blauvelt said.

He also said she was well remembered in the school’s faculty room. “No one has bested Hilda at the extended narrative, and her wit has enlivened many a faculty meeting.”

In 2002, she was named to the Friends School Outstanding, Distinguished and Honorary Alumni Association.

Ms. Imhoff was a fan of murder mystery fiction and read the works of Donna Leone, Louise Penny and Deborah Crombie.

A life celebration will be at 10:30 a.m. March 8 at Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church, 1316 Park Ave., where she sang alto in the choir.

Survivors include her daughter, Jennifer Imhoff Foley, of Bowdoinham, Maine; two sons, Peter F. Imhoff and Matthew C. Imhoff, both of Baltimore; a sister, Elizabeth Klingaman, of England; six grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter. Her husband of 59 years, Ernest F. Imhoff, died in 2021.

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