CINDY HUBBARD

Her elementary education was at Wheeling Country Day School; secondary at Miss Hall’s School in Pittsfield, MA; followed by several colleges in the east on the ‘5-year plan’, finally landing at Bethany from which she graduated Summa Cum Laude in 1972 with a double-major in French and Art History.

After college, she lived in Denver, CO, working first in a mortuary, then finding that too stressful, worked in a “foreign car company”, which she later became convinced was operating some business other than selling foreign cars, as no cars ever left the floor or inventory. Re: the mortuary, her parents had staked her $200 to live on until she found a job. She was running out of said funds, hadn’t found a job, and saw an ad in the Denver paper: “Are you afraid of dead bodies? If not, call…”. She thought it must be a joke. It was not. She taught skiing on the weekends at Arapahoe Basin outside Denver. She returned to Wheeling in 1974 and worked at the then Northern Panhandle Behavioral Health Center on the Inpatient Unit until 1985.

Beginning in 1986 and for over 20 years, she co-ran Noah’s Ark, a two-person volunteer organization dedicated to rescuing and rehoming relinquished, abandoned, abused, and neglected pets. During its years of operation Noah’s Ark rescued and rehomed over 2500 pets, helped hundreds of pets whose owners needed financial assistance to get Veterinary care, and campaigned to get every dog or cat they could spayed and neutered to try to help cut down on the massive overpopulation.

Simultaneously during this 20+-year span, she raised five orphan fawns in her barn and then released them into the wild of her country neighborhood. Once released, they still came back for bottles, and later as they grew, they came and just ‘hung out’ as she gardened, read on the deck or worked in the barn with the horses. One with whom she was particularly close used to sleep outside her bedroom window. She wrote about her treasured experiences in a book called “The Pleasure of Their Company.”

For many years she had two horses – Elmo, a 16-1/2-hand 5-gaited Saddlebred and Ebony, a 17-hand Plantation Walkin’ horse. She loved riding through the hills to Oglebay, Shawnee Hills, Table Rock Lane, Forest Hills, Washington Farms, and Glenwood Heights among other places. She and a friend used to ride from Shawnee Hills and Whitmar Hills II, to Glenwood Heights for a weekly Bible Study.

She skied well into her 60’s, and ran the Oglebay Ski School for 5 years in the 70’s. Her favorite times were when she was teaching kids how to ski. In the late 60’s and 70’s, she was fortunate to take skiing trips to Mont Tremblant in Canada, and Chamonix, France, with her sister Nancy. And when she lived in Colorado, trips to Aspen, Vail, Winter Park, and Steamboat Springs were great adventures.

Cindy also was an avid tennis player, beginning at age 6 on Oglebay’s Courts. She loved the game even more in later years. She taught tennis for many years, under Head Pro Fritz Schunck, at Oglebay Park and at the Schunck Tennis Camps in Bethany and Seven Springs. As with skiing, what she loved best was teaching tennis to kids. And, most especially, she loved the large group of friends here in Wheeling who played good games of tennis. She wanted to say a special thanks to her tennis pals for all the laughs, fun and great games on the courts! As William Butler Yeates said: “Think where man’s glory most begins and ends, and say my glory was I had such friends.”

She had a passion for Africa, elephants in particular, and went on Safari to Kenya and Tanzania in 1999. From 1999 to 2024, she made 5 more trips to Kenya on safaris with great friends. She worked with campaigns and organizations trying to lobby for outlawing the sale of ivory and for very harsh punishments for poachers. In 2014 she and her sister Nancy went to Kenya on a “Save the Elephant” Safari and were thrilled to get to spend time with the baby elephants they fostered through the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. Cindy had the great good fortune to meet the founder of the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, Dr. Dame Daphne Sheldrick, on her first trip to Kenya in 1999. They had begun corresponding in the late 70’s after Cindy saw an article about Daphne whose husband David, the first Game Warden of Tsavo National Park, had suddenly died. David and Daphne had been rescuing and rehabbing orphan baby elephants for more than 20 years. Two weeks after sending a $15 cash donation to Daphne and The Trust, Cindy received a 2-page hand-written note from her. That began a great friendship that went on for 40 years, even though they had only two in-person visits – she held this friendship as a life-changer and treasure.

Her one regret was having no children of her own, but her relationships over the years with her Nieces and Nephews, then Great Nieces and Nephews, helped fill that gap. She especially loved “hanging” with the Greats at family gatherings: doing everything from playing school – she as the heavily-accented, somewhat-whacky teacher Mrs. Poopsidoodle; to games of Chess and Scrabble – taking defeat by a then-8-year old Great Niece Anne fairly well; to playing tennis, hide-and-go-seek, and dress-up with them; and she was especially tickled when they made her an honorary member of their “Kids Corner Club”.

Her parents, Joan DuBois Holloway Hubbard and Senator Chester Russell Hubbard Il, preceded her in death in 1984, having given her and her sisters a truly wonderful life, with opportunities galore, and experiences rich and varied in activities, travel, education, love and fun. Also preceding her in death is her dear, sweet, creative and fun baby sister Mary Paull, or “Imp”, who died in 2021, Her older sister Nancy also preceded her, dying in 2022.

She is survived by her wonderful sister whom she’ll miss very much – Dana Hubbard Roscoe (George) of Manakin Sabot, VA and her honorary Hubbard sister, Sarah Chase, of Arlington, VA. She is also survived by: 5 Nieces and Nephews, who were very special to her: Jennifer Roscoe Smith (Frederic) her God- Daughter, of Birmingham, AL; Lisa Roscoe York (Wes), of Richmond, VA; Timothy Hubbard Taylor, her God-Son, of Washington, D.C., and his beautiful inside-and- out wife Rinku; Benjamin Walker Taylor of Arlington, VA; Shawn Maguire Taylor of Ormand Beach, FL.; and 4 Great Nieces and Nephews, “The Grands”, whom she absolutely adored: Anne Hubbard Smith of Birmingham, AL; Frederic Lee Smith Ill of Birmingham, AL; Jackson Howard York of Richmond, VA; and Caroline Elisabeth York of Richmond, VA.

Friends and family will be received Friday, March 6, 2026, at Kepner Funeral Home, 900 National Road, Wheeling, WV 26003 (304-232-2732) from 3-6:30 pm. Funeral services will be held at Lawrencefield Chapel on Saturday, March 7, 2026, at 11 am with Reverend Nancy Woodworth-Hill officiating. Interment will follow in Lawrencefield Chapel Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, Cindy asks that friends and family consider making donations to the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust/Orphans project.