Judith Coffman said she wished she had a nickel for every school sporting event she attended.
She rarely missed events that involved her seven children or her 13 grandchildren.
Coffman, who died May 22 at age 87, was essentially a single mom for many years because her husband, the late John Coffman, was disabled by a lung illness for years.
She returned to teaching when he became ill and taught for 22 years at Kohl Elementary School in Broomfield.
Her daughter, Carol Janusz of Littleton, asked her mother how she did it all and said her mother answered, “I don’t have time to think about it. I just do it.”
Coffman never had a driver’s license, “so she hoofed it,” took a bus or got rides, said her son Keith Coffman of Westminster.
She even took the bus from Broomfield to watch her son David Coffman, of Denver, and his games when he was at Regis High School in Denver.
“She had broad shoulders,” said Keith Coffman, who said all the children had duties, and his was vacuuming. “It was all hands on deck, and Mom was the captain.”
John Hawley of Maumee, Ohio, recalls having Coffman for a fourth-grade teacher at St. Teresa of Avila grade school in Toledo, Ohio. “Discipline was the No. 1 thing,” he said.
“There was rarely a gray area” with his mother, said Keith Coffman. “You always knew where Mom stood.”
“She was everyone’s favorite teacher; she was the best,” said Michele Payton, a former student who lives in Boulder.
“She made learning enjoyable, and she was never mean,” Payton said.
Many former students kept in touch with Coffman for years.
“We’d get hundreds of Christmas cards, and 80 percent were from former students or their parents,” said David Coffman. “She was good at getting shy kids to participate and made sure that everyone felt equal.”
The Coffmans were original members of Nativity of Our Lord Catholic Church in Broomfield when the town had a population of 800 and the congregation met in a savings-and-loan office. Today the population is almost 55,000.
Judith Leyland was born in James City, Pa., and reared in Toledo, the youngest of 16 children. She married John Coffman on May 27, 1950. They moved to Broomfield in 1957. He died in 1975.
She earned her degree at Mary Manse College in Toledo and taught in Ohio Catholic schools for several years.
In addition to her sons Keith and David and her daughter, she is survived by four other sons: Dennis Coffman of Aurora, Terry Coffman of Broomfield, Brian Coffman of Aurora and Marty Coffman of Westminster; 13 grandchildren; and three sisters: Inez Leyland, Sister Mary Johanna Leyland and Sister Mary Joachim Leyland, all of Toledo.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
