William Gordon Hobgood Jr's Obituary
W. Gordon Hobgood, Jr. was born on August 23, 1932, in New Orleans, Louisiana. He died January 8, 2021, from complications of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, surrounded by his family. His family moved to Dallas, Texas in 1937, where he resided the remainder of life. He married Martha Carol (Goodwin) Hobgood on July 3, 1957, and was married to her for 61 years, until her passing in April of 2018. Gordon is survived by his daughter Amy Castleberry and husband Craig of Dallas, and son Bill Hobgood and wife Debbie of Lewisville, and four grandchildren, Emily Hood and David Miller (fiancé) of Dallas, Matthew Hood of Prosper, Jordan Hobgood and wife Bronwyn of Winona, and Morgan (Hobgood) Richardson and husband Christopher of Fort Worth.
Gordon earned an accounting degree in 1953 and a law degree in 1959, both from Southern Methodist University. During his law school years, he was treasurer and then president of the Student Bar Association at SMU. He was also a graduate of the Stonier Graduate School of Banking. Following earning his undergraduate degree and prior to law school, he served in the United States Air Force as a First Lieutenant.
He joined First National Bank in Dallas in 1959 and became a Trust Officer in 1964. In 1968, he was promoted to Vice President in charge of the Employee Benefits Section. He was elected a Senior Vice President in 1970 and was placed in charge of the Investment and Employee Benefits section of the Trust Division. From January 1974 through October 1977, he served as Chairman of the Board of First International Investment Management, Inc., the investment subsidiary of the bank, and he held this position until being named to head the Trust Division of InterFirst Bank Dallas in October 1977, where he served until he assumed his position as Director of Trust Activities in 1986. In January 1987, he was named Managing Director of the Trust Line of Business Task Force for the merger of the InterFirst Corporation and Republic Bank Corporation. He took early retirement in 1988.
Following his retirement from banking in January 1988, Gordon joined the Annuity Board of the Southern Baptist Convention (now called Guidestone Financial Resources) as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating officer, where he oversaw all investments, retirement programs, property and casualty activities, and health insurance for Southern Baptist ministers and employees of churches, agencies, hospitals, and universities. Gordon served in this role for 10 years, retiring in March 1998.
Gordon served as a director of ALPS Securities, Inc., in Denver, Colorado. Additionally, he was a director of the Federal Farm Banks Funding Corporation. He served as a trustee of Children’s Medical Center of Dallas and was a member of the Community Advisory Board for the Public Communications Foundation for North Texas. He also served on various boards of the Baptist General Convention of Texas over a period of many years.
In his retirement years, Gordon served in various board and advisory roles, including as a director of Northern Trust Bank of Texas and as chairman of the Sunset Foundation, which raises funds for scholarships for graduating students of his alma mater, Sunset High School in Dallas.
Of course, those who loved him most never knew him as Mr. Hobgood. To them he was larger than life and a fierce supporter to those blessed to call him husband, Daddy, Pop, Granddaddy, mentor, or friend!
Gordon was an avid sportsman playing football and baseball in his youth, and later slow pitch softball, and racquetball. He loved to watch the Cowboys, Rangers, his alma mater the SMU Mustangs and the teams he adopted from his children and grandchildren, the Lumberjacks, Aggies and Baylor Bears.
He loved to fish, whether it was with Amy and Bill, or his most favorite fishing expeditions of all, handing his rod to one of his grandchildren to reel in the fish he hooked. When the grandkids would come in from fishing with Granddaddy, the story was always the same “I caught all these fish”, and Granddaddy, well, he didn’t catch anything!
Gordon was a man of great faith. While a member at Cliff Temple Baptist Church he met the love of his life, Martha Carol Goodwin and were married soon after. It was at Cliff Temple where they met many lifelong friends many of whom they played bridge with through the years. When they moved the family to North Dallas, they joined First Baptist Church of Richardson, where he was a Deacon and member for almost 50 years. It was there that they met another group of great friends, many of whom they enjoyed memorable nights together playing bridge and traveling the world! Gordon and Martha were dedicated members of their Sunday school class, the Morgan class also of First Baptist Church of Richardson.
Memorials in Gordon’s name may be made to: First Baptist Church of Richardson Landes Scholarship Fund or Guidestone Financial Mission Dignity Fund.
In light of the current pandemic, we have scheduled a public memorial service for Monday, June 7, 2021, at 11:00 am at First Baptist Church of Richardson.
Guidestone Financial Mission Dignity Fund
to donate on our website – www.missiondignity.org
First Baptist Richardson Landes Scholarship Fund
https://churchteams.com/m/Register.asp?a=YTNKN1grNUxWcUE9
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