1943
Hal
2008
Hal Hubachek
July 19, 1943 — January 13, 2008
My husband Hal Hubachek was born in Tacoma Washington on July 19, 1943 and passed away on January 13, 2008. He grew up in the Tacoma area and served in the Navy from 1961 to 1964. He began college and went to the University of Washington majoring in Sociology. He attended graduate school at Eastern Washington University and became a Presidential Management Intern during the Carter administration. He graduated with a Masters degree in Public Administration.
He had 3 daughters, Michelle from his first marriage, Julia and Isabel, my daughters.
Hal came to Washington for a career in government service and found computers. He self taught and quickly became capable in programming and system analysis. He worked in private industry in telecommunications and systems analysis. During his government service, years of alcohol use became a great liability to him and his career was jeopardized. He had a stay at the Psychiatric Institute in 1981 which was one of the few alcohol treatment centers at the time.
Eventually he became a volunteer with Jim McAdams in the teen alcohol treatment center at PI. Jim went on to become a certified alcoholism counselor in Fairfax County and recently passed away from Hepatitis C.
Hal met Mike Quinones in AA meetings, and he became a mentor to Hal for sobriety. Mike was my oldest brother and I met Hal by chance through him. Sparks flew and we began dating with great discomfort on my brothers part. I was involved in a labor strike in 1982 and Hal proved to be a supportive and loving partner. We married in 1986 and had Julia in 1988 and Isabel in 1994.
When we were dating, I discovered that life with Hal was going to be different. Georgetown Story.
Christmas Story. After we were maried, Hal continued to be generous with his time, wisdom and our money. These stories are an example of how Hal influenced a few people but there were many others. His spiritual life was such that he always had time for the suffering soul and our phone was always busy.
He also was a well regarded chess player. He volunteered at Takoma Park Elementary to teach chess to the children in the ice cream shop in Takoma Park.
After the birth of Julia we began looking for a spiritual home for the family. We found that home in Bethesda Friends Meeting. We have fond memories of weekends at Camp Catoctin and Christmas Pageants in which each of the girls were able to play the Virgin Mary.
In 2001 Hal became unable to work. We learned that Hal had Hep C and began a treatment journey. This began with interferon/ribovarin which gives you the fly for 4 days a week. After 6 months it did not work. He entered the HALTC trial at NIH with the help of MaryAlice. There they found a tiny tumour that turned out to be liver cancer. He was fortunate and received a liver transplant in 2004. We are forever grateful to the family who donated their sons liver to the program at University of Maryland. After about a year he began having medical problems related to recurrence of Hepatitis C. At the same time, I became unable to work through my own illness. What I thought was a catastrophe turned out to be a blessing. I was able to care for him and be with the family instead of working for the last 2 years of his life. In October of 2007 he was diagnosed with metastatic liver cancer found in the vertebrae and began treatment. He was able to come home for 5 days before Christmas which was his happiest time. After 10 hospitalizations and 3 nursing home stays, he was relieved of this burden of illness and passed away on January 13th.
He had 3 daughters, Michelle from his first marriage, Julia and Isabel, my daughters.
Hal came to Washington for a career in government service and found computers. He self taught and quickly became capable in programming and system analysis. He worked in private industry in telecommunications and systems analysis. During his government service, years of alcohol use became a great liability to him and his career was jeopardized. He had a stay at the Psychiatric Institute in 1981 which was one of the few alcohol treatment centers at the time.
Eventually he became a volunteer with Jim McAdams in the teen alcohol treatment center at PI. Jim went on to become a certified alcoholism counselor in Fairfax County and recently passed away from Hepatitis C.
Hal met Mike Quinones in AA meetings, and he became a mentor to Hal for sobriety. Mike was my oldest brother and I met Hal by chance through him. Sparks flew and we began dating with great discomfort on my brothers part. I was involved in a labor strike in 1982 and Hal proved to be a supportive and loving partner. We married in 1986 and had Julia in 1988 and Isabel in 1994.
When we were dating, I discovered that life with Hal was going to be different. Georgetown Story.
Christmas Story. After we were maried, Hal continued to be generous with his time, wisdom and our money. These stories are an example of how Hal influenced a few people but there were many others. His spiritual life was such that he always had time for the suffering soul and our phone was always busy.
He also was a well regarded chess player. He volunteered at Takoma Park Elementary to teach chess to the children in the ice cream shop in Takoma Park.
After the birth of Julia we began looking for a spiritual home for the family. We found that home in Bethesda Friends Meeting. We have fond memories of weekends at Camp Catoctin and Christmas Pageants in which each of the girls were able to play the Virgin Mary.
In 2001 Hal became unable to work. We learned that Hal had Hep C and began a treatment journey. This began with interferon/ribovarin which gives you the fly for 4 days a week. After 6 months it did not work. He entered the HALTC trial at NIH with the help of MaryAlice. There they found a tiny tumour that turned out to be liver cancer. He was fortunate and received a liver transplant in 2004. We are forever grateful to the family who donated their sons liver to the program at University of Maryland. After about a year he began having medical problems related to recurrence of Hepatitis C. At the same time, I became unable to work through my own illness. What I thought was a catastrophe turned out to be a blessing. I was able to care for him and be with the family instead of working for the last 2 years of his life. In October of 2007 he was diagnosed with metastatic liver cancer found in the vertebrae and began treatment. He was able to come home for 5 days before Christmas which was his happiest time. After 10 hospitalizations and 3 nursing home stays, he was relieved of this burden of illness and passed away on January 13th.
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