The late Philip G. Hubbard, who served as vice president and professor of engineering at the University of Iowa, was inducted into the Iowa African American Hall of Fame. He served as a faculty member in the University of Iowa department of mechanical engineering from 1954 until his retirement in 1991. He was vice president for student services and dean of academic affairs from 1966 to 1989.
Professor Hubbard was a native of Macon, Missouri. He enrolled at the University of Iowa in 1940 but left school to serve in the military during World War II. After the war, he earned bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. degrees in engineering at the university. After receiving his doctorate in 1954, he became the first African American faculty member at the University of Iowa.
In 1981 the university established the Philip G. Hubbard Human Rights Award. A park on campus is also named in his honor.
In 1999, Dr. Hubbard published his memoir, My Iowa Journey: The Life Story of the University of Iowa’s First Tenured African American Professor (University of Iowa Press). Professor Hubbard died in 2002.
