TM2(SS/DV) Eric 'Hobb' Hudnell • 1959

Honor Pages Index

Eric 'Hobb' Hudnell
August 24, 1959 - April 16, 2019
Olympia, WA

I heard of Eric's passing this morning, April 17, 2019, from Michael Jack.

Any photos or memories of Eric you can contribute will be incorporated in this Honors page for Eric. Feel free to start adding comments below of your memories of Eric and his time on the Bates.

You can send photos, stories, and memories of Eric to me via bradwmson@ssn-680.org.

Brad Williamson

Eric 'Hobb' Hudnell - Shipmate Profile

01 eric hobb hudnell then

Eric 'Hobb' Hudnell in the barracks - 1979
(photo courtesy Terry Pischke)

Eric 'Hobb' Hudnell with his grand-daughter - 2019
(photo courtesy of family)

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Jeff Simpson 6 years 7 months

Hobb

I am heartbroken to hear this, albeit a few months late. Hobb was a guy of the way-up-there highest caliber. He and I visited my family in Tucson a couple times, and we remained e-mail friends for some time.

Fair winds and following sun, Hobb.

Vaya con dios, Amigo.

Joe Smith 7 years 6 months

I just read the sad news that Eric (Hobb) Hudnell has passed.

I wanted to share a little memory that has been anchored in my mind for many years. It's a tiny thing and it's not profound at all but it has always stayed close to me. I guess it always stayed in my mind because it was typical Torpedoman, given their sometimes clever way of mixing submarine facts of life with real world non submarine events, via a clever turn of phrase.

As I recall the time, we had Watertight, Deeter, Hobb and a few others whose names I can't remember in the torpedo room. They were all clever guys with style. An odd style, a DBF style, which I think we all admired. I think I blame WT and Deets for all of that!

Anyway. It was in '79 or '80 that Hobb and I went to Black's Beach, a clothing optional beach in La Jolla which you got to by trekking down the cliffside there.

It was Hobb's first time. After settling down and getting naked we went in the water. We're swimming around and Hobb blurted out "I can't believe the feeling of cold water on my mud valve!". (For those that have forgotten their quals, the mud valve was part of the torpedo system, consult your TAB). I cracked up and never forgot that moment.

It was the typical unguarded openness that we sometimes had with each other (all of us). I will truly never forget that moment, Hobb.

Chris Vesper 7 years 6 months

Godspeed Hobb, we're all that much better for having known you.

Lee Johnson 7 years 6 months

I had lunch with Dave Gordon and "Hobb" the last time I was in Olympia a couple of years ago. We shared some good memories and laughter talking about what we could do "when we were younger" and seemed to be invincible to the world around us. I again thanked Hobb for the great pocket-knife with the deep-sea dolphins insignia etched onto it that he had sent me after I mailed his stained-glass dolphins to him. I use that knife nearly every single day and always think of Hobb when doing so. Now, it will have even more significance in my mind... and heart. Eric was a good shipmate who knew and did his job well. My heartfelt sympathies go out to his family; his wife of many years, daughters, sons-in-law and grandkids. He was a good man, a kind man who always shared a smile with the people around him.

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Our shipmate has passed on before us.

Whether by enemy action, the remorseless sea, or the ravages of time and age,
we must accept that God has called you to where we cannot yet follow.

We commend your body to the deep, and your soul to God Almighty.

May God grant you fair winds and following seas.

Godspeed, shipmate.

We will miss you...

"All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated. God employs several translators; some pieces are translated by age, some by sickness, some by war, some by justice; but God's hand is in every translation, and his hand shall bind up all our scattered leaves again for that library where every book shall lie open to one another...

"No man is an island, entire of itself, every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.

"Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

John Donne

Meditation XVII

Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions

Nunc lento sonitu dicunt, morieris.

Now this bell tolling softly for another, says to me, Thou must die.

1572 - 1631

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