Hobart Drake, Jr.
April 23, 2024 - January 25, 2011
DRAKE HOBART H., JR.
Of Sherwood Oaks, formerly of Mt. Lebanon, on Tuesday, January 25, 2011. Husband of the late Mary (Campbell) Drake; loving father of Mary Sue Murphy (Charles), and Peggy L. Drake; brother-in-law of E. Louise O’Donnell, Ruth Campbell Olsen, and the late Joseph A. Campbell, Jr., and Clare O’Donnell; grandfather of Monica Sorrell, and Charles Murphy; great-grandfather of Mark Auliff, Amber Sorrell, Ashley Murphy, Stephanie Murphy, and Nathan Sorrell. Friends received Sunday 2-4 and 6-8 at DEVLIN FUNERAL HOME OF CRANBERRY, 2678 Rochester Rd., (724)-772-8800, where services will be held Monday, 10 a.m. A proud graduate of Perry High school in Pittsburgh (January Class of 1939). Hobart completed two years of Architecture study at Carnegie Tech, now CMU. Prior to being drafted into the US Army Reserve in 1941. He served as an officer in the 69th Signal Battalion, Third Army, in the European Theater in WWII, where he fought in the Battle of the Bulge, helped liberate the Cruznstadt Concentration Camp in France, and joined in the longest sustained march of WWII, where he worked directly with Generals Patton, Walker, and Marshall. He received the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and Unit Commodations from both France and the US Army. In December 1945, he married Mary Campbell five days after his return. He then began his professional career as an Industrial Furnace Designer with Rust Furnace Company and Alcoa. Hobie retired as a retired Colonel in the US Army Reserve in 1968, and from Alcoa in 1983. His extensive volunteer interests included the Legion of Honor, Syria Temple of Pittsburgh and the 79’ers and Sunday School Class at Mt. Lebanon UP Church. He moved his family to Mt. Lebanon in 1955 so that his children could attend Mt. Lebanon schools, which his wife had attended. Hobie and Mary moved in 1995 to the Sherwood Oaks retirement community, where he enjoyed life for over 15 years prior to his death.
