Joe Hubbard’s life of service inspired others in Belleville and beyond
Joe Hubbard’s lifelong dedication to serving others across the metro-east inspired many for decades.
His nephew, David Williams, said Hubbard’s influence even inspired him to change careers — sales to working as a recreational therapist at a mental health center in Huntington, West Virginia. Williams now helps people develop hobbies at the center and works to uplift his hometown on his community Facebook page.
On Tuesday, the day before Hubbard died, Williams got the chance to give his uncle a message.
“I told him everything that I’ve always wanted to tell him, that he’s the biggest influence in my life,” Williams said.
Hubbard, a Belleville man who was known across the metro-east for helping people in need for over six decades, died Wednesday night, according to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul Belleville Council, where Hubbard had served as vice president of the board. He was 82.
Williams, who wrote a book about Hubbard’s life, said his uncle had been facing severe complications of diabetes and Parkinson’s disease.
In 2021, the St. Vincent de Paul Belleville Council honored Hubbard for 60 years of service with the group. He continued serving the group in the years after that ceremony.
As a young man in East St. Louis, Hubbard volunteered for St. Vincent de Paul. In 1973, he founded Catholic Urban Programs as part of the Belleville Diocese after former Belleville Bishop Albert Zuroweste offered him a job.
He told the News-Democrat in 2018 that he took the job with the diocese because wanted to stay in charity work.
“It was a one-person office,” he said of the early days at Catholic Urban Programs, which now offers social service programs for people in the diocese with a concentration on East St. Louis and surrounding communities.
Hubbard retired as the Catholic Urban Programs director in 2013 but didn’t stop working for others.
He continued serving through the St. Vincent de Paul outreach center at 3718 State St. in East St. Louis.
In 2019, he helped open the group’s overnight “drop-in” center where you can get refuge from bad weather. It’s located behind the outreach center.
The soup kitchen inside the center was founded by former Belleville Bishop William Cosgrove and has since been named Hubbard’s Haven Soup Kitchen in honor of Hubbard. The society describes the soup kitchen as “an important ministry serving those suffering from the effects of poverty: children, the elderly, the homeless, the mentally and physically disabled, and the working poor.” It is open seven days a week, year-round.
Hubbard also served as the director of the Belleville Diocese’s Catholic Cemetery Association, which oversees four cemeteries, including Mount Carmel in Belleville, Holy Cross in Fairview Heights, St. Philip in East St. Louis and Immaculate Conception in Cahokia Heights, according to the diocese.
Hubbard received dozens of awards during his career, including the 2003 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Award issued by Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.
“I believe that Joe Hubbard can be counted among those countless people who have struggled and continue to struggle to make Dr. King’s dream of justice and freedom for all a reality,” Cardinal Wilton Gregory wrote in his nomination form when he was serving as the bishop of Belleville at that time. Gregory recently stepped down from his position as leader of the Washington, D.C., Archdiocese.
Late-in-life wedding
Hubbard’s survivors include his wife, Julie, whom he first met as a teenager attending Holy Angels Catholic Church in East St. Louis.
While they were friends for decades, they didn’t get married until they were in their 70s in 2018. The delay was chalked up to their busy lives taking care of other family members.
“I didn’t think he would ever marry me,” Julie told the News-Democrat in 2018. “We were close, and I loved him, and he loved me, but we were just satisfied with the way things were.”
But that all changed when Joe proposed to Julie in May 2018 while the couple was attending a Mass at the Orr-Weathers public-housing complex in East St. Louis.
Their wedding was at St. Henry’s Catholic Church in west Belleville that June.
Tributes for Joe Hubbard
The Belleville Diocese praised Hubbard for his lifelong dedication.
“All the Catholic people of the Diocese of Belleville – in fact, all people of good will in this area and throughout Southern Illinois – mourn the passing of Joe Hubbard,” the Diocese said in a statement. “But our mourning is not without hope because Joe, day by day, did what the Lord Jesus asks of us all: to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to visit the sick and imprisoned, to bury the dead. And he did that for decades.
“His work was not government work, and not simply social work. His were the Works of Mercy, corporal and spiritual.
“So that while expressing our deep sympathy to his wife Julie and his large family of friends and co-workers, we have the great hope of Christ’s promises: ‘Whatever you did to the least of my people, you did it to Me.’”
Catholic Urban Programs said the group’s founder “taught us that service is love in action.”
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“From the very beginning, Joe envisioned a place where those who were hungry would be fed, those who were homeless would find shelter, and every person in need would be treated with dignity,” the group said in a statement. “Through his tireless dedication and unwavering faith, that vision became a reality, and a lifeline for thousands in our community.”
Gerry Hasenstab, who started working at Catholic Urban Programs with Hubbard in 1976 and later became the group’s director in 2013 when Hubbard retired, lauded Hubbard for his patience with residents who needed help and the respect he gave them.
“He taught me that it’s not always what we do for people, it’s how we do it for people,” said the 72-year-old Hasenstab.
Hasenstab, who retired from Catholic Urban Programs in 2020, said Hubbard would visit with elderly clients who didn’t need to be given any material things but they didn’t have any family members nearby. He often would comfort the dying.
“He would just sit with them and talk to them,” Hasenstab said.
“They just needed to know they were loved by somebody,” Hasenstab said. “That’s what he taught me the most, people just need to be loved.”
Joe Hubbard’s faith
Williams, whose book about his uncle is titled “Quiet Greatness: The Joe Hubbard Story,” said he was able to visit Belleville in August and drive Hubbard around to check out a few places, including Hubbard’s Haven in East St. Louis.
“He’s thankful for the time God kept him alive,” said the 61-year-old Williams.
And last month, Hubbard told the BND he had been in hospice since earlier this year.
“I’m ready to go when God says so,” he said. “Sometimes the world gets too crazy.”
Funeral arrangements
“Many called him a living saint,” according to the obituary posted Friday for Joe Hubbard. “For over 65 years, Joe continued his work for St. Vincent de Paul, constantly reaching out to help the poor, the lonely, the outcasts, the sick, the dying.”
There are two locations for visitation.
The first visitation will be from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Monday, Sept. 22 at Hubbard’s Haven at the St. Vincent de Paul outreach center at 3718 State St. in East St. Louis.
Visitation also will be from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 22 at Cathedral of St. Peter, 200 Harrison St. in Belleville.
A funeral Mass will be at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 23. at the Cathedral of St. Peter, with the Rev. Kenneth York officiating. Burial will follow at Mount Carmel Cemetery at 10101 W. Main St. in Belleville.
Kassly Mortuary of Fairview Heights is handling arrangements.
This story was originally published September 12, 2025 at 5:30 AM.
