People Behind H and H
The August 26, 1923 San Antonio Light “New Home of a Great Institution” spread was unusual in trade journalism: it ran individual profile blocks for every officer and department head, with portraits and direct quotes. That single day of newsprint is now the project’s richest source for who ran the firm and what they said about it.
William R. Hoffmann started roasting in the evenings at Sauer’s grocery and delivered the next morning — the 1923 profile is a memorial: he died in January 1912, the same year the company was incorporated. His co-founder W. E. Hayman became president and stayed until 1920, when he sold his interest to the Menger family.
By 1923 every named officer was a Menger: Gus P. Menger as president (“A president that sells”), Rudolph W. Menger as secretary-treasurer, T. J. Menger as credit manager (ten years at Alamo National Bank before joining), L. B. Menger as custodian of accounts. The 1923 spread also profiled the sales force — Paul A. Rochs, E. E. Knous (restaurant specialist, four years before Master Chef existed), Joachum Morales, R. A. Nagel — the operating layer that made the brand run in San Antonio’s grocery and restaurant trade.
The people in print were not only officers. A 1932 Express-News story quotes Gus Menger on the original hand roaster; the 1959 Light photographs him at the Delaware Street cupping table. What the newspaper record shows is a company where the president was also the salesman and the brand was tied to family continuity in a way that most institutional coffee companies never were.