Charles Hubbard, band teacher, dies at 93
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Charles Hubbard, 93, a band teacher for 35 years and music department chairman at H. Frank Carey High School in Franklin Square, died Saturday of complications from dementia. Credit: Handout
Music was Charles Hubbard's life.
Hubbard, 93, a band teacher for 35 years and music department chairman at H. Frank Carey High School in Franklin Square, died Saturday of complications from dementia.
His daughter Alison Hubbard, 60, of Huntington, said he taught hundreds of students, many of whom went on to become professional musicians. Her father, she said, was unfailingly patient, calm and encouraging.
Since his passing, his daughter said, the family has been flooded with letters and emails from Hubbard's students telling them how he influenced their lives. He also inspired the musical talents of his own children.
She recalled the first time she and her two sisters, Lora and Janice, pulled off singing in parts in the family car. The girls were then 3, 5 and 6 years old, she said.
"He was so proud of us," said Alison Hubbard, a private flute teacher. "What was beautiful was the look of pride in his eyes."
The Hubbard Sisters eventually sang with the Dixieland Jazz Band in the New York Pavilion of the 1964 World's Fair, and on the TV show "Wonderama," she said.
In 1946, Charles Hubbard, a longtime Huntington resident, helped found the Huntington Community Band and for many years he was its clarinetist, librarian and assistant conductor. In 55 years he never missed a single concert, his daughter said.
On weekends, Hubbard "moonlighted" as a club date musician, playing saxophone, clarinet and flute, and usually serving as master of ceremonies.
Hubbard was born Sept. 30, 1917, in Maysville, Ky. His parents owned a movie theater, where his father, T. Neal, played piano for the silent movies and his mother, Lillian, sang while the reels were being changed. Hubbard received a bachelor's degree from Transylvania University, where he majored in journalism and was the editor-in-chief of the school newspaper. He attended Columbia Teacher's College in New York, where he received a master's in music education.
Hubbard enlisted in the Army during World War II. He was stationed in the Philippine Islands, where he was a second lieutenant and a commander in the anti-aircraft division.
"We never knew that," his daughter said of his war experience. But she chanced upon his medals and accolades after he passed. "He never spoke of it," she said.
Music also introduced to him the woman who eventually became his wife. Hubbard met Ethel Licaro, a then Red Cross volunteer from Huntington, after he became the leader of a band called Three Stripes and a Bar. She was putting together entertainment for wounded troops. The couple was married for 61 years until her death in 2007.
Hubbard is survived by his three daughters, Lora Kuykendall of Holbrook, Alison Hubbard of Huntington, and Janice Lindsay of Camarillo, Calif., and three grandchildren.
Services will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at Jacobsen Funeral Home, 1380 New York Ave., Huntington Station. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made in Hubbard's name to The Visiting Nurse Service & Hospice of Suffolk Inc.
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