PATRICIA PECKINPAUGH HUBBARD
1929-2020
Patricia (Patty) Hubbard departed this life on Thursday morning June 4th with the grace and quiet strength that were the hallmarks of her life. A fifth generation Houstonian and life-long resident, she was devoted to the city, its civic and cultural institutions, her family, and many life-long friends and collaborators.
She will be remembered for her elegance, intellect, deep appreciation of the arts, and her delight in every opportunity to gather with the people she loved, especially for a good cause. Her knowledge of film, music, and history was encyclopedic and she was never without a good book or her beloved crossword puzzles, which she consumed with vigor.
After graduating from Lamar High School, she attended Mount Vernon College in Washington, D.C., before returning to the University of Texas at Austin, where she was a member of Pi Beta Phi sorority and a cum laude graduate. She was presented at the Allegro Ball in its 1950-1951 season.
For over fifty years she was actively involved with many of Houston’s civic and cultural organizations, and took great pride in the city’s development into one of the country’s premier centers for the arts. She served on the Boards of the American Red Cross, the American Cancer Society, and Zoo Friends of Houston. Appointed by the mayor to the Board of the Houston Public Library, she chaired two library benefits in the late 1970’s: the opening of the new Jones Central Library Building and the reopening of the restored Julia Ideson Building. In 1987 she received the Mayor’s Award for Outstanding Volunteer Service.
Her love of literature and the performing arts was evident in much of her community service. She served on the Boards and Executive Committees of the Houston Symphony and the Houston
Ballet, was a catalyst and co-founder of the Symphony’s Conductor’s Circle and the Alley Theatre’s CenterStage, and chaired annual charity galas for multiple organizations including the Junior League of Houston, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and Houston Ballet.
A member of the Alley Theatre’s Board of Directors since 1971, she served as President and Chairman, and in 2002 was named a Life Trustee. In 2003, when the Brown Foundation gave the lead gift to the Alley’s capital campaign, at the unanimous request of the Trustees, the Alley’s Large Stage was renamed the Patricia Peckinpaugh Hubbard Stage.
Up until her death, she was an active member of the Alley Theatre Board, Inprint’s Presidents’ Council, the Film Committee of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Advisory Board of the Center for Performing Arts Medicine at Methodist Hospital, and for over twenty-five years, a Trustee of the Cullen Trust for the Performing Arts.
Patty was known for her personal involvement with the organizations that she supported, whether big or small. Her contributions have made an indelible impact on Houston, which will be felt for generations to come. She was a role model, not only to her immediate family, but also to the many people she touched in her lifetime.
Her contributions were recognized with awards from the Alley Theatre, the Houston Business Volunteers for the Arts, the Society for the Performing Arts, and Houston Treasures. In 2008 she received the first “Trail Blazer” award given by Houston Wilderness in honor of her lead gift of acreage to the Spring Creek Greenway project, which was carved out of her family’s beloved ranch in Montgomery County and named the Peckinpaugh Preserve, in honor of her father.
She was a member of the Junior League of Houston, the River Oaks Garden Club, the Town and Country Garden Club, the Bayou Club and River Oaks Country Club
She was preceded in death by her parents, William Thomas Peckinpaugh and Marie Boettcher Peckinpaugh,
by her sister and brother, Marie Peckinpaugh McCullough and William Thomas Peckinpaugh, Jr., by her husband of forty-five years, Ford Hubbard, Jr., and by her daughter-in-law, Molly Hubbard.
She is survived by her son, Ford Hubbard, III, her granddaughter, Julia Ashland Hubbard, her nieces, Tye Peckinpaugh Taft, Patricia Peckinpaugh Griffith, and Anne McCullough Shallenberger, her nephews, Robert W. McCullough of New York City, and William Thomas Peckinpaugh, III, by ten great nieces and nephews, and by seventeen great-great nieces and nephews.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorials to the Alley Theatre Endowment Fund, 615 Texas Avenue, Houston, TX, 77002, or to a charity of your choice.