Rebecca Gerlach Hofmeister, 50, of Rochester, MN died Tuesday, May 12th at Mayo Clinic Methodist Hospital Campus in Rochester. Rebecca was born on June 13th, 1975 in Frankfurt, Germany to Dr. Wolfgang Gerlach and Marcy (Barck) Gerlach. Rebecca grew up in the villages of Eisenbach and Niederselters to the northwest of Frankfurt. She attended ballet lessons, played soccer, and competed in Equestrian Vaulting (Voltigieren) in her youth. In Germany she was a student at the Tllemannschule Gymnasium, a preparatory school in the city of Limburg an der Lahn.

Rebecca moved to Rochester, MN with her mother and siblings at age 17 and attended Rochester Mayo High School as a junior and senior. At Mayo, Rebecca competed in gymnastics as well as track and field. After high school, Rebecca obtained an associates degree at Rochester Community College and then attended the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, where she first obtained a bachelor's degree in Child Psychology. She worked for a time at a software company in the energy industry, before returning to school and completing a second degree in Molecular Genetics. She began employment at Mayo Clinic in Rochester in 2007.

Later that same year, Rebecca met Brian Hofmeister, to whom she was married on September 26th, 2009. Rebecca and Brian welcomed a daughter, Stella, in 2011 in Rochester and later moved to Maple Grove, MN where they welcomed a second daughter, Phillipa, in 2014. In Maple Grove, Rebecca was a stay-at-home mom for a time, and later worked various positions, including as a laboratory technologist at Access Genetics. The family returned to Rochester in 2016, where Rebecca returned to work at Mayo Clinic from November 2015 until the time of her death.

Rebecca was a devoted and loving mother to her two daughters. She always prioritized the girls’ needs, and was fiercely committed to their well-being and was always their biggest cheerleader. Rebecca encouraged the girls to follow their passions, to try different things, and to enjoy many of the simplest things in life. She enjoyed watching them perform in gymnastics, dance, rock climbing, soccer, basketball, band, choir, or whatever endeavor they pursued. Many hours of family vacations were spent looking for unique or special rocks on various lakefront beaches around the midwest. Rebecca taught her children compassion and love for all animals, and maintained a vegetarian diet her entire adult life. She would never hesitate to rescue a creature in need; earthworms on the sidewalk, an overturned snapping turtle on the roadway, flies or moths in the home, all were returned to safety.

Rebecca was respected by her co-workers and became fast and close friends with many of them. She brought intelligence, fun, and an endearing playfulness to work every day, yet she was serious about the work, and the importance of her work as it pertained to the lives of patients. Rebecca worked at Mayo Clinic’s Molecular Genetics Laboratory for a total of over 15 years.

Rebecca was preceded in death by her father, Dr. Wolfgang Gerlach, her paternal and maternal grandparents, and her uncle Brian Barck. She is survived by her husband Brian, daughters Stella and Phillipa, all of Rochester; her mother Marcy Gerlach of Rochester; sister Jessica (Mark) von der Becke of Kelkheim, Germany; brother Tyson (Kelly) Gerlach of Maple Grove, MN; sister Andrea (Dan) Heggestuen of Dayton, MN; several nieces and nephews, two aunts, five uncles, and many cousins.