Obituary

Ralph J. Hubert, 83, contractor, winery owner

Ralph J. Whitie Hubert, founder and chairman of Gaithersburg-based Hubert Construction LLC and co-owner of Tarara Winery LLC, died April 7 at his home in Leesburg, Va. He had prostate cancer and Parkinson”s disease. He was 83.

Mr. Hubert was born in Avon Lake, Ohio, and raised on a fruit farm that included a vineyard. He attended Bowling Green State University before joining the Marine Corps during World War II. After his military service, during which he participated in several Pacific amphibious landings, he attended John Carroll University for a year before transferring to Catholic University, where he was a wrestling champion and quarterback of the football team. It was there that he received his nickname Whitie” from a football coach who had trouble remembering his name and identified him by his light-blond hair.

Between his junior and senior years of college, Mr. Hubert took a bicycle trip from Paris over the Alps to Rome. During his return to the U.S. in 1949, he met his future wife, Margaret, on the English Channel. He graduated from Catholic University with a degree in architectural engineering in 1950.

Mr. Hubert was a player in the Washington-area construction industry for more than 40 years. With just $1,000 in startup capital in 1959, after the birth of his fifth child, he founded Glen Construction Co. with Frank Darcey. In 1969, he bought out Mr. Darcey and began building a reputation as one of the metropolitan area”s largest contractors. For several years, Glen was included in Engineering News Record”s list of the top 100 contractors in the nation.

By the 1980s, Glen was building more than 2 million square feet of commercial space per year, including some of the area”s landmark buildings such as the J.T.L. Tycon Towers office building in Tysons Corner and the Radisson Mark Plaza hotel in Alexandria. He served as president of the Metropolitan Washington Associated Builders and Contractors and was national president and fellow of the American Institute of Constructors. In the late 1990s, Mr. Hubert reduced his involvement in Glen Construction and sold his interest to his son, Michael Hubert. In 1998, realizing that he missed working in the construction industry, he founded Hubert Construction LLC. In 2002, he won the D.C. Metropolitan Subcontractors Association Pinnacle Award for lifetime achievement in the building and construction industry.

Mr. Hubert thought working in the construction field was a great sport. He was proud of the Glen Graduates, many of whom started their construction careers with him and went on to positions of industry leadership.

Like many World War II veterans, Mr. Hubert developed an interest in flying. He received his pilot’s license and owned several airplanes, one of which met its demise in a crash landing. Mr. Hubert managed to walk away from that crash and several other incidents involving moving vehicles. Friends and family learned that it was better to be Mr. Hubert’s driver than his passenger, even while riding in a golf cart.

In 1985, Mr. Hubert and his wife bought a 475-acre farm on the Potomac River in Loudoun County and named it Tarara. There they built a home and winery, planting 50 acres of grapes, fruit trees and nursery stock. They opened Tarara”s tasting room in 1989. Mr. Hubert was actively involved with the Virginia Wineries Association, encouraging state support of Virginia”s nascent wine industry, which is now the nation”s fifth-largest.

Tarara Winery became Mr. Hubert’s sandbox for an unending series of projects that precluded a slow-paced retirement. With Tarara, he returned to his Ohio roots, living a life focused on family, farming and growing grapes for wine.

Survivors include his wife of 56 years, Margaret; five children, Karen Harvell of Atlanta, Martha Hubert of San Francisco, Steven Hubert of Bethesda, Janet DuBois of Minneapolis and Michael Hubert of Gaithersburg; and nine grandchildren.