John White Hubbard

Year Inducted: 2015

John White Hubbard was born in Wilkesboro, December 17, 1931, to Julius C. and Nellie White Hubbard. John graduated from Wilkesboro High School in 1950 and UNC-Chapel Hill in 1959 with a degree in Journalism. John served four years of active duty in the United States Air Force during the Korean War and earned the rank of staff sergeant. John was editor of the Smoky Mountain Times and the Andrews Journal from 1959-1963. During this time, he was also Western North Carolina correspondent for United Press International and the Knoxville News Sentinel.

Hubbard, his wife, Becky, and their three children moved back to Wilkes in 1963, and he began work as a reporter for his family’s newspaper, the Wilkes Journal Patriot. In 1972, he and his brother, Julius C. (Buddy) Hubbard, Jr. became co-publishers of the newspaper, after their father’s death. Hubbard was still working and served as co-publisher until his death in 2010, at age 78. During his career he won many North Carolina Press Association awards for photography and news writing.

John was an advocate for many non-profit organizations in the county, and sought to give citizens a “hand up.” During his life, he was also an advocate for New River Mental Health and did much to get that organization started in Wilkes in the 1970s. He was chairman for Heart Fund drives in Swain and Wilkes counties. He was on the advisory committee for the Wilkes Vocational Center, supporter of The Health Foundation, Wilkes Chapter of the North Carolina Symphony Society, Smoot Park Pool and Wilkes ADAP, a Boy Scouts of America committee chairman, and a member of the Friends of the Wilkes County Library. A member of North Wilkesboro Presbyterian Church, John served the church as Sunday school superintendent and in other capacities.

One of the awards of which John was most proud was when the Wilkes Journal Patriot won “The School Bell” award in 1977, given to the media organization in North Carolina which had done the most to support education in the previous year. During this time, Wilkes County Schools was trying to put forward a school bond referendum to build a new Wilkes Central and to improve many of the poor conditions in the schools in the county. The bond referendum passed, improvements to the schools were made and the new Wilkes Central in Moravian Falls graduated its first class in 1981. John also won first place in news coverage for non-dailies in the 1966 North Carolina Press Association annual contest, with only Editor Dwight Nichols and him working in the news room, covering news and sports. John White Hubbard was a true servant of Wilkes County and its people.