[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Pages 635-636]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO JOE HUBBARD

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I want to take a moment to thank a man 
that some in my hometown of East St. Louis call a saint and others call 
``Reverend Joe'' although he is not a minister.
  Joe Hubbard is the man you call in East St. Louis when you need help 
and have nowhere else to turn. When Joe was born his parents wanted to 
name him Raymond Lee. But the Irish priest who baptized him said he 
should have a good Irish name and so declared him Joseph Patrick, after 
St. Joseph the Worker. It turned out to be a fitting choice because Joe 
Hubbard has spent nearly his entire life doing the Lord's work.
  He started 50 years ago as a volunteer with the St. Vincent DePaul 
Society in East St. Louis. Joe was 20 years old back then. He was 
working as a bookkeeper for the East Side Levee and Sanitary District 
to help support his widowed mother, but his real joy was helping the 
poor. Every minute that Joe wasn't working, he was volunteering with 
St. Vincent DePaul.
  After a while Joe quit his job to volunteer full-time to help the 
people he calls ``God's broken people,'' the poor, the homeless and the 
friendless of East St. Louis. He did this for a decade.
  In 1972, about a dozen priests, nuns and lay leaders in the Roman 
Catholic Diocese of Belleville drafted a petition that was later signed 
by every priest then serving East St. Louis. The petition asked the 
bishop of the diocese to create a small salary for Joe so that he could 
continue his good works under the auspices of the Catholic Church. Thus 
was born in 1973 a new social service agency, Catholic Urban Programs 
or CUP, as it is sometimes called--with Joe Hubbard as coordinator and 
sole employee.
  CUP's purpose is to perform the works of mercy that Jesus asked of 
his followers when he told them, ``For I was hungry and you gave me 
food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed 
me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and 
you visited me.''
  CUP helps ``the in-between people.'' It fills needs that other 
organizations, public and private, don't address. In the beginning 
CUP's services included emergency help, prison ministries and advocacy 
and guardianships for people who could not manage their own affairs.
  Over the decades its programs have grown to include shelters for 
homeless women, children and families in East St. Louis, a food pantry 
and a neighborhood law office to provide poor people with legal 
assistance. Another program, the Griffin Center, offers tutoring and 
afterschool programs for more than 450 children living in four housing 
projects in East St. Louis.
  On any given day, Joe might give someone money for bus tickets, visit 
a lonely person in a nursing home, tell stories to children at a day 
care center, find housing for a family that has been evicted, serve 
meals at a soup kitchen, attend a funeral and sit up all night at the 
bedside of someone who is dying and alone.
  Above all, what CUP and Joe Hubbard offer is unconditional love. Joe 
does not hesitate to do work that others might consider too menial or 
dirty. He will mop up after a sick alcoholic. Twenty years ago, Joe and 
his right-hand man at CUP, Gerry Hasenstab, found a man living in his 
car. He was in his 50s and dying. He had open sores and maggots in his 
arms. His only wish was not to die dirty, in a car. Joe and Gerry got 
him admitted to a hospital to spend his last hours in a clean bed.
  Support for the programs comes from churches and individuals, 
including many who have been helped by CUP agencies in the past. One 
woman gave part of her first paycheck to CUP after she got a job. A 
widow paid CUP back for the money it gave her to help with her 
husband's funeral.
  After the Mississippi River overflowed its banks in 1993, CUP gave a 
farmer $400 to buy seed and school supplies. That farmer has sent CUP 
$100 every quarter--$400 a year every year for the last 20 years.
  Joe's compassion for others is partly rooted in his own family's 
misfortune.
  Joe is the youngest of four children of Edward and Olga Hubbard. His 
dad was a steamfitter. When Joe was in

[[Page 636]]

grade school his father was badly injured on the job. He lived with 
constant wrenching pain for 8 years before dying of cancer.
  The loss of his father's income hit Joe's family hard. Men and women 
from the St. Vincent de Paul Society brought food and coal to help the 
Hubbards survive. Joe said those volunteers inspired him.
  He said, ``I remember the dedication they showed, the way they 
reached out and helped others in need through their love of Christ. And 
I appreciated that they did it in a quiet manner that enabled people to 
keep their dignity. Their love of God and love of people inspired me to 
want to do God's work, too.'' And that is what Joe Hubbard has done his 
entire life.
  In early November, after 40 years of selfless service, Joe Hubbard 
announced that he was stepping down as coordinator of CUP. At 70, Joe 
is starting to get a little tired. He's got diabetes, high blood 
pressure and bad feet, and the arthritis that has pained him his whole 
life is getting worse.
  On Jan. 1, Gerry Hasenstab, Joe's right hand man at CUP for the last 
36 years ago, took over as the agency's new coordinator. But don't 
think for a minute that Joe Hubbard is finished helping people. Joe 
also still maintains the Belleville Diocese's two cemeteries. And he 
still volunteers regularly for the St. Vincent DePaul Society and has a 
small office in their building, which is right next door to CUP.
  When CUP started, they got about two dozen calls a day for help. Now 
they get about 60 calls a day. Last year, CUP programs helped more than 
24,000 people in East St. Louis and St. Clair County.
  In a letter announcing his decision to step down, Joe wrote: ``As I 
sit here and realize how the times have changed over the past 40 years 
of Catholic Urban Programs' existence, I am both amazed and 
discouraged. Technology has made our lives so much easier and efficient 
in so many ways. High-efficiency furnaces lower our utility bills. But 
if a family can't pay for the gas or electric, they are useless.''
  Technological advances are great for some, Joe added. But they've 
made life even harder for the needy because nonskilled jobs they used 
to count on to make a living have nearly disappeared.
  A couple years ago, Joe noticed violets blooming on a hill near a 
burned-out house. He thought it was a sign of hope.
  He said: ``You have to be a believer to be a survivor.''
  Joe's belief is that God is in every person and that it is not just a 
responsibility but a privilege to help those he calls ``God's broken 
people.'' That belief has defined his life and it has made life kinder 
and better for countless others in East St. Louis and St. Clair County.
  Besides helping people, Joe's other great joy in life is eating good 
meals with good friends in small, locally owned restaurants. On 
Saturday, about 400 of Joe's friends will gather at one of Joe's 
favorites, Fischer's Restaurant in Belleville, to celebrate his 
retirement as head of CUP. More than that, they will celebrate Joe's 
unconditional love and unbreakable faith. I want to add my thanks to 
theirs.
  In closing, I would like to read a short editorial about Joe that ran 
in this past Sunday's Belleville News-Democrat.

       Martin Luther King Jr. would have considered Joe Hubbard a 
     kindred spirit. King and Hubbard both spent their careers 
     championing the cause of social justice. King focused on the 
     spirit while Hubbard helped provide for people's physical 
     needs in East St. Louis and throughout the metro-east. 
     Hubbard is retiring after leading Catholic Urban Programs for 
     40 years.
       King considered service to others to be a measure of 
     greatness: ``You don't have to have a college degree to 
     serve. . . . You only need a heart full of grace. A soul 
     generated by love.''
       Hubbard has the sort of heart and soul that King 
     envisioned. Even in retirement, we have no doubt that he will 
     continue his life of service to the poor of our area.
       Thank you to Hubbard. May the rest of us learn from his 
     example.

                          ____________________