Karen Hubbard began advocating for a community ice skating rink in St. Mary’s Point after she watched her husband’s Jeep go through the ice on the St. Croix River.

It was 1966, and Stan Hubbard was plowing an ice-skating rink for the neighborhood kids when his Jeep started to sink. Hubbard escaped through an open window – he couldn’t get the door open since it was already below ice – and crawled to shore. “She was a little ticked off and scared,” he said. “She wasn’t pleased at all about that. Many things I did, she wasn’t pleased about.”

That incident led Karen Hubbard to spearhead construction of the Lower St. Croix Valley Youth Center, which opened in 1968. The ice arena, located near the Hubbards’ home on the St. Croix River, remains open to ice skaters, hockey players and curlers in the area.

Karen Hubbard, a longtime member of the board of directors of Hubbard Broadcasting, died Aug. 12 at Regions Hospital in St. Paul after suffering a stroke. She was 87.

Former Gov. Wendell Anderson appointed Karen Hubbard to the first Minnesota-Wisconsin Boundary Area Commission, where she helped shape policy for the St. Croix River after it was designated a National Wild and Scenic Waterway. The commission played a major role in the successful inclusion in 1972 of the Lower St. Croix River in the National Scenic Riverways system.

Working to help protect the St. Croix River came naturally to Karen Hubbard, Stan Hubbard said. “She lived on the St. Croix River, and she wanted to help the river remain healthy,” he said.

The Hubbards loved boating on the St. Croix, and Karen Hubbard’s “focus was always to make sure that people could enjoy the river and have fun on it,” said Stanley E. Hubbard, the couple’s oldest son. “It was important to her that the recreational aspects of the St. Croix River were always protected, as well as the beauty of it. It was home. It was where she raised her family.”

Born and raised in St. Paul

Karen Holmen was born and raised in St. Paul. She graduated from Central High School in 1954 and attended Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, where in 1958 she earned a degree in education, with a special interest in art and English.

After graduating from Gustavus, Karen taught art and English at Fairview Junior High School in Roseville.

Stan Hubbard said he saw Karen Holmen, then a senior at Gustavus, for the first time at a party at her best friend’s house in St. Paul. He said he immediately turned to her friend, Mary Jean Villaume, and said, “Who is that?” “She said, ‘Don’t bother. She won’t go out with you. She has a boyfriend,’” he said.

Stan Hubbard said he waited until Karen Holmen graduated from Gustavus to call her. Their first date was to the River’s Edge Supper Club in Somerset, Wis.

“When I first looked into her eyes, I knew there was something there,” he said. “She was absolutely honest and straight. She would tell you exactly what she thought, but she was kind. She treated people fairly and honestly, and she was a hard worker. She never shrank from doing hard work. If it meant getting her hands dirty, no matter. She did it. … We were as close as two peas in a pod since the first time we started dating.”

They married on June 13, 1959, at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in St. Paul; Karen Hubbard’s grandfather had been minister of the church, and he helped officiate, Stan Hubbard said. “I took her on a honeymoon on a small boat in Lake Michigan, and she got seasick,” he said. “She wasn’t happy about that.”

The couple lived in Lakeland before moving into Stan Hubbard’s parents’ summer house in St. Mary’s Point and making it a year-round home; his parents had moved out after the St. Croix River flooded in 1965.

‘A full and wonderful life’

The Hubbards had five children in the space of eight years: Kari, Stan, Ginny, Rob and Julia.

“Our house was always a crowded place, and she welcomed everybody,” Stanley E. Hubbard said. “We had a big backyard, the river, the beach. It was the hang-out house. The cookie jar and the freezer was always full because there were always a lot of kids who needed snacks. That was always important. We were lucky.”

Karen Hubbard served as a director on many boards, including the Minnesota Orchestra and Children’s Home Society. She also was a longtime member of the St. Paul Garden Club.

“She had a full and wonderful life,” Stanley E. Hubbard said. “She touched a lot of people along the way, not just us.”

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The Hubbards loved sailing and boating on the St. Croix, and especially enjoyed their time entertaining family, friends and business associates onboard MIMI on the St. Croix River, the Florida Keys and throughout the Bahamas; “Mimi” is what her grandchildren called her. They also enjoyed spending time at their home in the mountains near Angel Fire, N.M., and spent much of the winter at Ocean Reef in North Key Largo, Fla.

Back to that Jeep: It was pulled out of the river not long after it sank, and they even got it running again, Stanley E. Hubbard said.

In addition to her husband, Stanley S. Hubbard, and son, Stanley E. Hubbard, Karen Hubbard is survived by children Kari Rominski, Ginny Hubbard, Rob Hubbard and Julia Coyte, and 15 grandchildren

A reception to remember Karen Hubbard will be from 4-8 p.m. Thursday at the Town & Country Club in St. Paul. In lieu of flowers, memorials are preferred to the Lower St. Croix Valley Youth Center at St. Mary’s Point.