Hubert H. Moss

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, in my own words. A man named Hubert H. Moss was born in Woodbine, right here in Cooke County, in 1892.

Now, some people leave a place and take everything with them. Moss left, but he kept coming back, and every time he did, he brought something new. He attended North Texas State Normal College, became a teacher, and then left Cooke County to serve in World War I.

That's a considerable thing, stepping away from a classroom to answer a bigger call. But when the war was done, Moss came home to teaching. He taught high school, and eventually he became a chemistry professor at the newly formed Gainesville Junior College.

Newly formed. He was there at the beginning of something, and the students knew it. He was a trusted advisor to them, not just a man at a chalkboard.

Then in 1946, Cooke County named him school superintendent, a post he would hold until his death in 1952. Six years at the helm of the whole county's education. But here's where the story gets interesting, because Hubert Moss was the kind of man who couldn't stop thinking about the future even when he was already doing two jobs at once.

In 1951, as president of the Gainesville Chamber of Commerce, he crusaded, and that's the word the marker uses, crusaded, for the creation of a lake. Gainesville needed water. Not just today's water, but tomorrow's water, the kind of supply that secures a city's future.

He pointed to a site on Fish Creek and said, that's the place. Moss died in 1952. He never saw the water rise.

But in 1966, the city finished construction of Hubert H. Moss Lake on the very Fish Creek site he had suggested. A lake bearing his name, filling up right where he said it should.

That's the kind of vision that outlasts a man.

What the marker says

Hubert H. Moss was born in Woodbine in 1892. After attending North Texas State Normal College, he became a teacher before leaving Cooke County to serve in World War I. After the war, Moss taught high school and became a chemistry professor at newly formed Gainesville Junior College, where he was a trusted student advisor. From 1946 until his death in 1952, he served as Cooke County school superintendent. As president of the Gainesville Chamber of Commerce in 1951, he crusaded for the creation of a lake to secure Gainesville's future water needs. The city finished construction of Hubert H. Moss Lake in 1966 on the Fish Creek site he suggested. Moss was an outstanding educator whose vision continues to benefit his community. (2006)