At the age of 14, Harry Hoffman was an operator at the Dashwood telephone exchange, Hay Municipal Telephone Company, which was owned by Peter McIsaac. When McIsaac died in 1939, Harry became manager of the phone system. He supervised the construction of the new telephone exchange building in 1942 at the same time he was building his new funeral home. During the war, Harry use to make telephones, which were hard to get at the time. He would scrounge working parts from old phones to assemble working phones. In many cases he would have to make the wooden cases the phone parts where assembled in. His involvement with the telephone company created his interest in collecting telephones. His collection consists of over 100 telephones, with models dating back to 1880. Located in the basement of the Funeral Home, Harry's "Telephone Room" is filled with telephones and other telephone related memorabilia Proud of his collection, he often took families coming through the funeral home, on a tour of his room. The collection is still enjoyed today by many, at the funeral home.
Caring on the tradition of working with the local telephone company, Harry's youngest son Jim is director of Hay Cooperative Communications, since 1995.