In Memoriam: Maurice Hibbard

The Rev. Lt. Col (Ret) Maurice Hibbard
March 2, 1935 ~ November 21, 2022

Letter from Rev. Kent

Beloved church friends and family,

I am truly sorry this morning to report the death of mentor, colleague and friend, Maurice Hibbard. Maurice suffered a heart attack several weeks ago that took him to the VA. After receiving excellent care he was able to come home, but had a second last week. Doctors determined that surgery would not be possible or successful. In these last days he was able to enjoy the company of nearly all his loving family with BG at his side. Surrounded by their love, Mo died last night, Monday November 21, and peacefully entered that wider life.

Maurice and wife BG joined Union Church in 2007. As those who knew Maurice at all will attest, the man was marvel of invention, of energy, and roguish good humor. He was perpetually curious about the world, innovations, and inventions. He loved good friends, good card games, and yelling at all the calls on all the courts and fields of every sport. A licensed pilot for much of his life, Mo was an Air Force Chaplain for many years. Retired at the rank of Lt. Colonel, he and his family lived literally all over the United States and the world. His life was filled with stories of adventures in Turkey, the Oregon Coast, the plains of Oklahoma, Korea, and so many others. “Not bad,” he told me once, “for a down home Kentucky kid!”

After retirement from the military Maurice, an ordained Presbyterian minister, returned home and pastored his home church in Greenbrier for 8 years. There he helped build a new sanctuary and set the congregation on a path to health. He also loved pastoring several small churches in Oklahoma who loved him into great ministry, he always said. The Kentucky connections remained strong when after the death of his then wife to cancer, he reconnected with family friend BG, who had lost her husband to cancer. Mo’s love of good humor and good sense was matched and exceeded in that partnership and the two have enjoyed all that life could bring these last many years.

As a pastoral colleague and friend, Maurice was honest and forthright (almost to a fault, BG says) but a sincerely generous problem solver. Possessed of an angel’s heart and a colorful military vocabulary, he could tell it like was then charm you into feeling OK about it. His huge heart, his deep warmth, his insatiable curiosity (he couldn’t wait to get his hands on an all-electric car, which was fine until they almost ran out of juice in the middle of the Oklahoma summer!), and the love he bore his family and friends have all left indelible marks on me. I’m sure many of you would say the same.

On the last day I was able to be with him in the hospital, he was he was uniquely himself as he faced the next great unknown. We spoke of how nobody knows what comes next, but that Great Love somehow had to be a part of it. We laughed about dying being such an inconvenient way to get close to God, and we prayed that all he loved could be held in God’s embrace as he took off for the next wild ride. I am only one of the many people in his orbit who aspire to the humanity, compassion and country grace Maurice Hibbard shared with this world. Down home and worldly, profound and playful, gentle and impatient, stubborn and loving, faithful and eloquently irreverent: I doubt any of us will equal him in those gifts. I will treasure his blessing for all of my days.

There will be a family service for Maurice in Cowan Chapel on Friday, November 25 with burial of his ashes at a later time. The family has asked that gifts in memory of Maurice be made to Union Church.

In your prayers please keep BG and all the children, in-laws, grandchildren and extended family in your prayers. Having always “lived large” Mo leaves a deep wake but a powerful absence. May Light eternal shine on him and give him wings to fly again, and may God’s holy comfort bring some of Maurice’s peace back to those who are missing him. Even death cannot fully sever the ties of love we share in this world. May we feel his presence in every bad joke and wise observation we can remember.

Rejoicing and Weeping,