Emil F. “Dude” Hubka Jr., 73, of Glen Ellyn, a former public relations executive who did pro bono work for several large Chicago area organizations, died Sunday at Stanford University Hospital in Menlo Park, Calif.
Mr. Hubka, who also resided in Menlo Park, started a foundation to make people aware of macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness.
A native of Oak Park, Mr. Hubka was born into a newspaper family. His father, Emil, was the former night city editor of the Chicago Daily News and editor of the Chicago Sun, predecessor newspaper of the Chicago Sun-Times. His brother, Merle, was a night city editor at the Chicago Tribune.
A magna cum laude graduate of the University of Illinois in 1946, Mr. Hubka did graduate work at the University of Texas, the University of Wisconsin and Rosary College, now known as Dominican University, in River Forest. He later received a diplomate degree from Selwyn College at Cambridge University in Cambridge, England.
Mr. Hubka was an assistant professor of English at Texas A&M University, College Station, from 1946 to 1950.
For most of the next 44 years, Mr. Hubka did public relations for such institutions and corporations as the medical campus of the University of Illinois, Chicago; the Chicago Automobile Club; Motorola; Blue Cross-Blue Shield; and Allied Mills, and then organized and supervised an agency, Press Relations Inc., in Glen Ellyn.
Mr. Hubka’s clients included firms such as Talman Home Federal Savings and Loan, WGN Radio and National Can Corp. His more than 11 pro bono clients were organizations as diverse as the Sudden Infant Death Foundation, the National Ski Patrol, the Supreme Court Historical Society, the Old Town School of Folk Music, the Chicago International Film Festival and Food Justice Programs of Chicago, where he served on the board of directors at various times, said Donald Young, a longtime friend.
“He had a soul,” Young said. “He was very, very bright. When he had an idea, his eyes would flash with enthusiasm. His energy was boundless.”
In 1995, Mr. Hubka formally closed his firm and devoted all of his time to pro bono activities. In his early 50s, he had contracted macular degeneration, a disease that distorts and begins to block out objects or parts of objects that one sees. The disease is the leading cause of blindness in the Western world and affects one out of 10 people over age 60.
In 1996, Mr. Hubka and his wife, Muriel, formed the Emil F. and Muriel Stuart Hubka Foundation, which develops awareness of macular degeneration and raises funds to fight the disease.
Survivors include his wife, Muriel; a daughter Susan Hubka-Young; and two grandchildren. Visitation will be 3 to 9 p.m. Friday at Leonard Memorial Home, 565 Duane St., Glen Ellyn. Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at St. Petronille Catholic Church, 420 Glenwood Ave., Glen Ellyn.
