Obituary of William F. Hobbie

William F. Hobbie passed away peacefully January 21, 2012 at the age of 91. Born in Boonton, N.J. on March 31, 1920, Bill was the youngest of five children of Edward Humphries and Sophronia Barlow Hobbie. His early years were marked by sadness, including his mother's long illness and the family's losses in the Great Depression. In 1935 the Hobbies moved to Madison, N.J. There Bill discovered a mentor and lifetime friend in Ward Shoemaker, principal of Madison High School, from which he graduated in 1939. When World War II broke out, Bill enlisted in the Marine Corps and served in the South Pacific until his honorable medical discharge in December 1942. Encouraged by Shoemaker, he enrolled at Rutgers University on the G.I. Bill and in 1948 graduated with honors in agriculture and environmental science. While at college Bill met Frances Ryder, a student at New Jersey College for Women (now Douglass College), and the two married in 1946. They are the parents of four daughters; over the years, Bill's sense of humor helped him cope with the giggles and tears inherent in living with all those girls. Bill began his professional career in administration at Rutgers. While there he worked with staff from G.A.Brakeley & Co. of New York when the firm conducted a development study for Rutgers, and in 1950 he joined the Brakeley team. With the exception of his time as development director at Kent School (1958) and Kemper Military Academy (1959), Bill remained with Brakeley for 40 years. As a senior consultant, vice chair and for a time president of the company, he directed fundraising studies and major campaigns for more than 100 nonprofit organizations including the New York Zoological Society, Hofstra University, Princeton Theological Seminary, Hartford YMCA, Joslin Diabetes Center and Morristown Memorial Hospital. At age 70 he retired to become an independent consultant for another decade, often doing volunteer work for organizations of interest to him. These included the Matheny School, Housatonic Valley Association, Gould Farm, Monterey Meeting House and Pluckemin Presbyterian Church. Although he didn't pursue a career in agriculture, farming remained in Bill's blood his whole life-from the tractor-driving contests he won in his 20s to the cottage gardens he planted well into his 80s. The Hobbie family lived on a series of New Jersey farms for many years. Bill loved restoring old homesteads, and after his retirement owned and worked on several in New England and Pennsylvania. A skilled carpenter, he especially enjoyed restoring (and "creating") antique furniture. Bill was blessed with remarkably good health, and he relished the physical activity-chopping firewood, clearing brush-involved in owning a country property. Though he commuted to Manhattan and rubbed elbows with prominent names in the world of philanthropy, he was most comfortable in work boots and a flannel shirt, driving an old pickup or second-hand Jeep. Until his very last years, he was an avid reader of history (especially the Civil War), economics, current affairs and philosophy, revisiting favorite authors like Eric Hoffer with multiple readings. Bill also thoroughly enjoyed a good joke-especially of the British variety-and was a lover of puns and other forms of wit. In his 80s he wrote a collection of aphorisms and published it in 2006 under the title "The Third Fence Post." Bill was predeceased by his sisters, Katherine Emerson and Lucille Hobbie Heimrod, and his brothers, Edward and Lawrence Hobbie. He is survived by his wife; four daughters: Kathryn Hobbie (Reinhard Bohme), Christine Hobbie (Neil Brander), Prudence Cuper (Jo Beth Mullens) and Lucy Corvino (Sal); four grandchildren: Prudence Cuper (Kelly Eppley), Marcus Cuper (Brooke), William Cuper (Michael Meneni) and Jolie Mei Corvino; and three great-grandchildren (Lucas and Natalie Cuper and Margaret Eppley Cuper). Those wishing to honor Bill's memory are encouraged, in lieu of flowers, to make a donation in his name to Heifer International, an organization that provides livestock and support to farmers in developing countries ( www.heifer.org). Arrangements by the Bailey Funeral Home of Peapack. www.baileyfuneralhomes.com