Dr. Hubert Black

Jim Rush Funeral Homes 220 Wildwood Avenue, S.E. 2600 North Ocoee Street Cleveland, TN 37311 Phone 423-472-4555 Fax 423-472-2012Dr. Hubert Black, longtime Cleveland resident and former professor and dean at Lee University, transitioned to heaven on November 5 from the Hope Hospice House in Fort Myers, Florida. Born in Birmingham, Alabama, on August 10, 1926, to William Luther and Vera Brannon Black, Hubert spent his formative years in Attalla, Alabama, with his parents and siblings, Luther, Jr. and Vera Estelle. It was at Etowah County High School in Attalla that he met Ulna Burell, whom he married in 1945. May of next year would have marked their 70th anniversary. Following his service as a paratrooper during World War II and graduation from Jacksonville State University, where he was an honors student and football player, Hubert embarked on an ecclesiastical and educational journey that would include three Church of God pastorates, and master’s and doctoral degree studies at the University of Chattanooga and The University of Tennessee, respectively. He and Ulna shared an educational vocation, working together at Lee University, Chesapeake College in Maryland, Troy State University in Alabama, West Coast Christian College in California, the Asian Seminary for Christian Ministries in the Philippines, and Lincoln Memorial University in Tennessee. Hubert served as the president of West Coast Christian and the Asian Seminary for Christian Ministries, and was a professor and/or dean at each of the other institutions. He authored scores of articles, three books on philosophical and theological foundations of education, and a devotional book on the Beatitudes. Throughout those years of religious and educational service, Hubert and Ulna were committed to racial and economic justice as expressions of their Christian faith and humanity. As he explained it, "the level ground around the cross and the empty tomb extends its holy, liberating soil to men and women wherever they are oppressed and exploited." Hubert and Ulna have two sons, Hubert, Jr. (Sara) and David (Valerie). They have six grandchildren: Michael (Shawnya) Black, Cindy (Jonathan) Guevart, Christopher (Lydia) Black, Justin (Jaime) Black, Kurt (Amber) Richter, and Greta (Mike) Weil and eleven great grandchildren. A Remembrance of Life service will be held at 2pm Tuesday November 11 2014 at the North Ocoee St. Chapel of the Jim Rush Funeral Homes, 2603 North Ocoee St. in Cleveland, Tennessee with interment to follow at Sunset Memorial Gardens in Cleveland. The Reverend Chuck Smith, pastor of the Broadway Community Church in Fort Myers, will officiate. The family will receive friends Tuesday from 12 noon until 1:30 at the funeral home. In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to the Hubert P. and Ulna B. Black Scholarship Fund at the Asian Seminary for Christian Ministries, Project # 7600006, Church of God World Missions, P.O. Box 8016, Cleveland, TN 37320.Read Obituary