We are sad to learn Dr. Dean Hubbard passed away on Sunday, March 23, 2025, after a prolonged battle with kidney disease. The last moments of his 85 years were spent surrounded by his loving family in his Kansas City home. Hubbard served as Union’s president from 1981 to 1984, and had been academic dean for four years preceding that. 

During his tenure, President Hubbard left an enduring legacy at Union. Among his many creative ideas was Project BRUSH, now known as Project Impact. Launched with a goal of painting 100 houses in 10 years, the annual community service day is still going 44 years later and is the longest running event of its kind in the nation. 

He also oversaw a complete rebranding of the school, launching Union’s first official logo, a U and C made of golden cords, and supported a student initiative to add gold as Union’s third official color, accenting the red and black the school has used since its founding. 

His leadership brought about the renovation of the Don Love Building, including moving the library from Engel Hall to its current location and the creation of the student center and atrium. Elsewhere on campus, art classes moved to Engel Hall, the McClelland Art Gallery was created on the lower level of Culver Hall, and Union Manor, a retirement community, was built. 

Hubbard invested in technology, creating a dedicated department for administrative computer systems. Under his leadership, Union became the first college in America with a computer terminal in every dorm room, and he launched computer literacy requirements for all students. 

“There was a time Union was a leader in technology, and that was under Hubbard,” recalled Tom Becker, Union’s former director of Information Systems. “He was a visionary. I remember when he came into my office, sat down and said, ‘Tom, I have an idea: I want to put a terminal in every dormitory room.’ I was thinking, I don’t even know how to start doing that, and then his next words were ‘We will figure out how to do it together.’

“Being at Union for 43 years, I worked with a lot of presidents. Dean Hubbard was the one I felt knew the most about my work and goals. He would come to my office with ideas, and he always asked, ‘What can I do to support you in this?’ He was someone who would support you and work beside you.” 

Rich Carlson, chaplain emeritus, also fondly remembers Hubbard’s leadership. “Dean Hubbard was the person who gave me the opportunity to serve Union’s school family,” Carlson said. “After eight years as an academy chaplain, I had returned to college to get another degree through the Guaranteed Education program. But Dean cast a different vision for my life and how I could serve Union. He believed in me. He wanted me. First, he asked me to help freshmen transition from high school to college through their first religion class. Two years later, he offered me the job of chaplain and gave me leadership responsibility that no other Adventist college or university offered their chaplains because he wanted to demonstrate to our school and our constituents the importance Union places on spiritual life. I was the first chaplain to answer directly to the president, the first chaplain to be fully endorsed by the Church, the first chaplain to become a vice president, and still the only chaplain to stay in that position for 40 years. Dean Hubbard was the catalyst for both my life’s work and the student-led ministry model we developed at Union.” 

Hubbard was an innovator wherever he went. Prior to his time at Union, he served in the Korean Union Mission as ministerial secretary. In that role, he brought the language school model that had proven successful in Japan to Korea. He founded and served as the first director of the Seventh-day Adventist Language School in Korea, which has since expanded from the original campus in Cheongnyangni to ten locations that have served more than 5 million students since 1969. 

After Union, Hubbard went on to become the longest serving president in the history of Northwest Missouri State University (1984-2009), bringing with him many of the innovations he had begun at Union, including computer terminals in dorm rooms and an annual community service day. The university has posted a detailed obituary of Hubbard on their site.

From 2010 to 2014, Hubbard came out of retirement to serve as president of St. Luke’s College of Health Sciences in Kansas City, Missouri. 

Hubbard is survived by Aleta, his wife of 66 years, three children and six grandchildren.