George D. Hubbard, a retired Semmes, Bowen & Semmes attorney who was known for his irreverent sense of humor, died of Alzheimer's disease Dec. 11 at Copper Ridge, an assisted-living facility in Sykesville.
The Ellicott City resident was 88.
The son of Griffith Evans Hubbard, a New York attorney and newspaper editor, and Dorothea Denys Hubbard, a homemaker, George Denys Hubbard was born in New York City and raised in Ridgefield, Conn.
After graduation in 1943 from Milton Academy in Milton, Mass., Mr. Hubbard earned a bachelor's degree in 1945 from Harvard College.
He worked on Wall Street for Dominick & Dominick as a municipal bond salesman from 1946 to 1949, when he left to go to Yale Law School. He earned his law degree in 1953.
He had also been a Navy reservist and attained the rank of lieutenant.
In 1953, Mr. Hubbard began his law career as an associate at Semmes, Bowen & Semmes, and was named a partner of the Baltimore law firm in 1963, a position he retained until 1990, when he became counsel.
Mr. Hubbard was an expert in taxation and in public finance. He also worked in estate planning, trusts, retirement planning, corporate taxation and administrative practice with the Internal Revenue Service.
He also did bond counsel work for the city of Baltimore, Prince George's County, Frederick County and the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission.
"George was at Semmes for many, many years, and he really was my mentor there. He had always been a wonderful help to me and was very much a part of my early practice," said Albin MacDonough "Mac" Plant. "He was a wonderful tax lawyer. Our late colleague David R. Owen described him as having "real class" and that he was an "elegant lawyer."
Mr. Plant said Mr. Hubbard was "primarily a business lawyer and not in court very much. Tax and business planning was what he did."
After retiring from Semmes, Bowen & Semmes in 1992, Mr. Hubbard worked for several years as a financial adviser for A.J. Perry & Co., a Baltimore financial planning firm.
While living in New York as a young man, Mr. Hubbard became interested in Republican politics and worked on various congressional, gubernatorial and mayoral campaigns.
In 1956, he ran for Congress in Maryland's old 4th District, losing to Democratic incumbent George Fallon; and in 1960 he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in Chicago.
Mr. Hubbard was active for years in the civic and cultural life of Baltimore. He had been president of the Peale Museum and a member of the board of Citizens Planning and Housing Association. He was also a past president of the Baltimore Estate Planning Council.
He served on the boards of the Urban League, the Parole Commission, Junior Association of Commerce and Community Chest of Baltimore, and had served as president of the Maryland Society for the Prevention of Blindness. He was a former president of the Harvard Club of Maryland.
Known for a rich and quirky sense of humor, Mr. Hubbard enjoyed creative wordplay, family members said.
According to his first wife, the former Helen Stow Duker, "He loved to say, 'Many are cold, but few are frozen,' which is a play on the biblical saying, 'Many are called, but few are chosen.'"
"He was a big goofball at home," said his daughter, Adreon Warfield Hubbard of the Idlewylde neighborhood near Towson.
"Whenever someone would eat a peach at a family meal, he would say, 'You must have an eat-a-peach complex,' which is a play on Freud's Oedipus complex," said Ms. Hubbard.
An outdoorsman, Mr. Hubbard enjoyed sailing, hiking, camping and traveling. An avid tennis player, he played until he was into his 70s. He also liked gardening, reading and listening to classical music. He was particularly fond of Gilbert and Sullivan operas.
"He also enjoyed spending time with his beloved Bichon Frise dog, Puccini," said Ms. Hubbard.
Mr. Hubbard, who moved to the Fairhaven retirement community in Sykesville in 2003, had been a member of the Maryland Club, Center Club and the old Merchants Club. He was also a member of the Society of the Cincinnati.
A memorial service for Mr. Hubbard will be held at 11 a.m. Feb. 7 in the chapel at Fairhaven, 7200 Third Ave., Sykesville.
In addition to his daughter, Mr. Hubbard is survived by his wife of 26 years, the former Sonja Margetts; two sons, Griffith Evans Hubbard II of Baltimore and Thomas Gantt Hubbard of Cambridge, Del.; a stepson, Philip Nils Margetts of Parkland, Fla.; two stepdaughters, Helen E. Canet of Ellicott City and Kathryn A. Nader of Sykesville; a brother, John Hubbard of Dorset, England; and nine grandchildren.