Family tree with deep Bobcat roots “OU, oh yeah,” proclaim Ohio University faithful. The Chubb family’s five generations of Bobcats declare: “OU, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.” Progenitor Edwin Watts Chubb, for whom the Athens Campus administrative building is named, arrived in 1900 to head the English Department. He became liberal arts dean in 1907 and retired in that role in 1936. Chubb also served as acting president in 1920 and 1934. Addressing 2,600 attendees at an Allegheny County teachers’ convention late in his career, “He defined education as the ability to meet an emergency,” reported The Pittsburgh Press. “He named Lincoln, Edison, Vanderbilt, Walt Whitman, Horace Greeley, and William D. Howells among ‘the great in America’ … [because] these men knew accurately, reasoned correctly, felt soundly, and grew steadily.” A prolific scholar, Chubb continued writing in retirement, including an article, “Athens, Ohio,”—about “joys of living in a small town”— for The Pure Oil News. The city “possibly has more telephones per capita than any other town in Ohio,” he observed. Chubb further referenced historical figures including Charles Grosvenor, whose name adorns the OHIO building that houses the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine. Grosvenor grew up in Athens; was an attorney, Union Army general during the Civil War, and a U.S. representative for 20 years; and “looks like Santa Claus but talks like Satan.” The most recent Chubb to uphold the Green and White? Freshman biological sciences major Emma Chubb. “I knew my great-greatgrandfather was president, but I didn’t know
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about all the other family members who went here,” said the Honors Tutorial College student focusing on dentistry. Emma’s dad, John Chubb, BSED ’89, keeps the Bobcat family lore. In a joint interview during Parents Weekend last September, he explained that the altar set at Galbreath Chapel came via donation from Catherine Chubb Munds, AB ’18, daughter of Edwin, and that John’s father, Richard Chubb, BBA ’67, married Christine Tanski, BS ’67, there in 1965. John, a high school mathematics teacher at Akron (New York) Central School District, reveres his great-grandfather. “For me, Edwin Watts Chubb was like the president of the United States. Two buildings are named for him [the other: the-now Harry B. Crewson House, occupied by Institutional Equity]. He was on this pedestal.” Despite the pedigree, “it wasn’t a foregone conclusion I’d go here,” added John, an Athens native. “My twin brother didn’t.” Still, John didn’t apply elsewhere. “I was very aware of the legacy,” he recalled. One day in high school, while raking a community member’s yard with a friend, he was invited inside for lemonade, “and the host, learning of my lineage, said, ‘You could never sour the Chubb name.’” Emma agreed. Valedictorian of her high school, she chose OHIO without pressure from dad (or mom, Kathy, a former elementary schoolteacher and non-Bobcat). “Everyone smiles at you here. It’s a vibrant and accepting community,” said Generation No. 5. “A lot of people know my name. I have to do my best and live up to that.” Proud papa put it this way: “OU makes you a better person.” —Editor Peter Szatmary
FIVE GENERATIONS OF CHUBBS AT OHIO
Generation No. 1: Edwin Watts Chubb (1865–1959), English department head (’00), liberal arts dean (’07–’36), acting president (’20 and ’34). His wife, Eve Downer Chubb (1866–1944), took classes at the Athens Campus and chaired the YWCA advisory board. The couple were married for 52 years. They rest in West Union Street Cemetery in Athens.