John Cecil Hubert lived nearly a century, and he made good use of it.

     John was born October 21, 1927, in the family home in McCook, Nebraska, to Sidney Roberts Hubert and Mary Ann Roach Cruver Hubert. He died August 22, 2026, at the age of 98 years, 10 months and one day.

     He grew up in McCook during a time when there was always work to be done, and John seemed to have a hand in just about all of it. He graduated from McCook High School in 1945, but even before graduation he had already begun building the work ethic and sense of community that would follow him throughout his life.

     As a young man, John worked wherever there was a job to be done. He worked at Sliger’s Auto, the Keystone Hotel, a dry-cleaning business, cleaned a law office, and delivered the Omaha World-Herald. During the war years, he collected scrap metal for the war effort. While still in high school, he worked with survey crews at the McCook Army Air Base and helped transport survey crews working on the Prisoner of War Camp at Indianola and other area projects. He also worked at Enders Dam, helped with cement work at the POW camp and later helped pour concrete for McCook’s east water tower.

     John enlisted in the United States Navy shortly after his 17th birthday and was called to active duty in July 1945 during World War II. Following his active service and time in the reserves, he was honorably discharged.

     Not long after returning home, his life took its most important turn. On February 6, 1949, John married Eileen Leota Ackerman at Peace Lutheran Church in McCook. Their marriage became a lifelong partnership, spanning 77 years of shared work, laughter, devotion and love.

     Only months after they were married, John and Eileen moved a house in from the country, set it over a basement and began making it their home. They lived in the basement while they finished the main floor themselves. Once they moved upstairs, they rented out the basement, beginning what would become a long chapter of their lives as landlords. Over the years, they went on to own multiple other rental properties as well.

     Their renters were rarely just renters. John became a father figure and friend to many of them, and those relationships often lasted long after they had moved away. College boys living there knew they could come to John before an important date and have him tie their neckties for them.

     That open-door spirit extended well beyond their renters. John and Eileen’s home was a refuge for family and for others who needed a place to land. John understood that sometimes taking care of people was as simple as making room for them. He was good to people whether he had known them for years or had only just met them, and he had a way of helping people without making much fuss about it.

     In his working life, John was most closely associated with the railroad, although even that career came with a few detours. He worked for the CB&Q Railroad, later Burlington Northern, first as a fireman and eventually as an engineer. In the days of steam engines, John shoveled coal by hand and was among the last hand-fired steam locomotive coal shovelers working for a major railroad.

     When railroad layoffs came, John did what he had always done—he found work.

     He went to work for the Rural Electric Association during the years when electricity was still making its way to farms throughout southwest Nebraska. His job included visiting farmers and getting permission to run power lines across their property, digging holes for poles and helping string wire. He also escorted county extension agents to farm homes, where the agents showed families—many of whom were using electricity for the first time—how to operate electric stoves and other new appliances.

     Eventually John returned to the railroad, where he spent a total of 40 years before retiring from Burlington Northern.

     He was active in the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Engineers and served as its secretary for several years. He was particularly proud of helping secure insurance coverage for railroad employees.

     Retirement, however, did not make John especially good at sitting still.

     Over the years, John and Eileen owned several businesses, including the Bison Drive-In Theatre and the Fox Theatre. They owned Hubert Industries, a plastic injection molding business, operated a car detailing business, raised thoroughbred racehorses and owned Riverside Rink, where generations of local kids knew John affectionately as “the Dice Man.”

     Those ventures were part business, part adventure and part John simply being John. He liked people, he liked projects, and he liked having something going on.

     John was also deeply invested in McCook and its history.

     He served as a trustee at Peace Lutheran Church, where he and Eileen were longtime members. Earlier in life he had attended St. Alban’s Episcopal Church.

     He served on the board of the High Plains Historical Society Museum, including about 10 years as president, and served on the McCook Community College Foundation Board. He began the memorial brick program on the college campus and played a role in bringing the large boulder from South Dakota that became part of the McCook campus.

     After retirement, John became active in Rotary. He was recognized as a Rotarian of the Year, received the Paul Harris honor and was also presented with the Hormel Award. For years, he and Eileen could be found doing highway cleanup through Rotary. He also volunteered with the Red Cross Bloodmobile, helping set up blood drives, and he and Eileen regularly transported donated blood to North Platte.

     John’s community involvement reached in nearly every direction. He served on the Chamber of Commerce Heritage Days Committee and was president of the Alliance for the Encouragement of the Visual and Performing Arts, the governing board for the Fox Theatre. He was a founding board member of the Bison Alumni Newsletter and one of the people behind the Bison 2000 Reunion. Beginning after graduation, John helped organize his McCook High School class reunions every five years for decades.

     His efforts did not go unnoticed. Among the honors he received were an Admiralship in the Nebraska Navy, recognition as a Master Storyteller through Buffalo Commons Storytelling, the McCook Chamber of Commerce Community Builder Award, recognition with Eileen as a Heritage Days Honor Family, and the first Hubert Award from the Alliance for the Encouragement of the Visual and Performing Arts, which named a star in their honor.

     The storytelling honor suited him.

     John had lived enough life to have a story for nearly every occasion, and he remembered the people, places and details that made McCook home. As a young man he traveled without much trouble and rarely became homesick. That changed, he once said, after his children were born. From then on, home was wherever his family was.

     John and Eileen raised five children: Christina, Frederick, Robert, Laura and Michelle. Their family grew to include grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren, and John took great pride in watching each new generation find its way.

     John is survived by his wife of 77 years, Eileen Hubert; daughter Christina Coleman and her husband, Charles; son Frederick “Fritz” Hubert and his wife, Janet; son Robert Hubert and his wife, Sherry; and daughter Michelle Doorn and her husband, Robin.

     He is also survived by 13 grandchildren, 10 great grandchildren, and one great-great grandchild. He is also survived by other family members who were fortunate enough to call him Grandpa, Great-Grandpa, uncle and friend.

     He is also survived by his sister, Mary Lou Drake; numerous nieces and nephews; and his dear friend, Lloyd Smith.

     John was preceded in death by his parents; his daughter, Laura Ann Hubert Karp, who died February 14, 1990; granddaughter Kayla Marie Hubert; and his sisters, Inez Wynona Brown Weed, Bernadine Aileen Suggs, Eunice Lorraine Vinson and Nancy Lee Miller.

     Ninety-eight years gave John plenty of time to see the world change. He went from helping bring electricity to rural Nebraska to watching generations of his own family grow up in a world that would have been difficult to imagine when he was a boy. Through all of it, some things about him remained the same. He worked hard. He stayed involved. He helped when something needed doing. He remembered where he came from. And there always seemed to be room at his table, in his house or in his life for one more person.

     For John, a life well lived was not complicated. You worked. You showed up. You helped your neighbors. You took care of your family. And, whenever possible, you left your little corner of the world better than you found it.

     John did.

     Visitation will be held on Tuesday, August 25, 2026 from 10:00 AM - 7:00 PM at Herrmann-Jones Funeral Chapel in McCook. John's family will greet friends from 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM.

     Funeral services are scheduled for 10:30 AM on Wednesday morning, August 26, 2026 at Peace Lutheran Church in McCook. Burial in Memorial Park Cemetery in McCook will follow services.

      Memorials are suggested to the family of John Hubert for future designation. Online condolences may be left at herrmannfh.com. Arrangements have been entrusted to Herrmann-Jones Funeral Chapel if McCook.