-- Dr. Harry Hobbs, now communications relations officer for the Huntsville Police Department, always stood out in a crowd – and as a kid, he hated it.
“I was the only bi-racial child in an all-black neighborhood,” Hobbs said this week, explaining his passion for reaching out to kids on the back edge of success. “And I know what it’s like to go hungry, to go without.”
Somehow along the line, despite the absence of his father, the illness of his mother that meant he was raised by his grandparents, despite a latte skin tone that made him too black for the whites and too white for the blacks, there were adults who gave him a different view of himself than as victim.
“During one of the brief times I had with my mother, I’ll never forget, she told me I was smart – and I believed her,” Hobbs said.
And there were other nudges along the way that he credits to the leading of God and the kindness of teachers, coaches and random experiences.
“As corny as it sounds,” Hobbs said, repeating a phrase that comes up in conversation with him, “I saw a movie about the Army, and I decided that when I grew up, I would be a soldier and help people.”
A family picture, taken when he was about six, confirms his story. His darker-skinned brothers pose for the camera, with one glancing over curiously to where the young Harry stands proudly at attention, saluting the photographer.
Help along the way
There was his Boy Scout leader, who helped him find and conquer the path to become the first boy of color to complete his Eagle Scout requirements in the greater Louisville area.
There were the coaches he met through the scholarships the YMCA gave to underprivileged kids who taught him to push himself and to develop the athleticism that led to his becoming the longtime coach and running member of Redstone’s Army Game championship 10-mile team.
There was the Baptist minister who tracked him down after one Sunday when he and his young wife – they married at 17 for her and 20 for him – visited church and walked him through the steps to salvation.
There are the people who surrounded him through two war zone deployments, to Bosnia and to the Persian Gulf and through his diagnosis, five years ago, with prostate cancer – just one more challenge, he said, he won’t let defeat him.
Photos, slogans and news stories on the walls of his office at the Huntsville Police Department, remind him of those people and those steps in his life.
“These are a reminder of how far God has brought me,” Hobbs said, looking around his office. “There were many, many people who invested in me, who made sure I did what was right in life.”
Avenues to success
It’s an investment he wants to pass along to the youth of Huntsville.
In addition to his work as the first JROTC instructor at Columbia High School before he joined the police force, in addition to his talks to youth groups, his work with soldiers at Redstone and the nighttime classes he teaches for the local campus of the Florida Institute of Technology, last year Hobbs envisioned and then spearheaded the first Community Awareness for Youth event sponsored by the Police Department for area youth.
“Our target are youth in grades seven through 12, but we’ll have something for folks from 1 to 99,” Hobbs said. “We are inviting the whole family there.”
“It’s going to be the perfect storm of engaging the community with the police and with services, agencies, clubs, activities to let them know why we think it’s important that they succeed in life – and to show them the path to get to that success.”
His wife, Erica Hobbs, volunteers with him to lead the vast team that is putting together Saturday’s Community Awareness for Youth event, which begins at 10 a.m. at the Jaycees building and fairgrounds, 2180 Airport Road.
The event brings together a jackpot of community resources, activities and supportive organizations for families to get acquainted with as they support the success of their youth. Exhibits will help the youth consider how they can support what Hobbs calls the four pillars of success: health, physical fitness, education and careers.
“We have to reach out to youth besides just at the schools,” said Bonnie Hoogstra, a volunteer with the event who still appreciates the effect Hobbs’ leadership in JROTC had on her own son at Columbia High School. “A lot of parents just don’t know the avenues to help their kids. We let them know how they can achieve their dreams.”
The event includes games for the kids, including games that challenge them, such as a climbing wall or mock battles with inflatable poles, and even a dance contest.
“There’s going to be information, but we want them to have fun, too,” Hobbs said. “Life is serious business, but we can have fun and do what we need to do, too.”