The occasion of a person’s death causes those who remain to remember and recount how their lives intersected and interacted.
I would not be in Indianapolis if it weren’t for Al “The Bishop” Hobbs.
While Dr. Frank Lloyd Sr. and one unknown to many, Andy Johnston, played a role, Al Hobbs made the final call on whether I’d work at WTLC Radio’s small sales department.
For 18 years, Hobbs was my boss. The longest one I’ve worked for in my 43-year professional career.
Maybe you’ve had a boss who held you back, stifled your creativity, inhibited your ability to flourish as an employee and individual.
Al Hobbs was just the opposite. He gave me the creative freedom to spread my wings to grow and flourish. He relished in the success of his employees and all those he mentored, nurtured and encouraged.
Al Hobbs was my graduate school. I learned so much about business, sociology, psychology, economics, marketing that I couldn’t learn in any classroom.
Example: Before I met Al, I thought Mother’s Day was the second Sunday in May. I learned from him “Mother’s Day’s” monthly importance in the economy and ecology of African-American households and communities.
From Al, I learned the importance of listening to people and learning from them; of treating everyone, even those you disagreed with, with respect.
At WTLC, he allowed me and others the freedom to do our thing as long as it served the forward motion of the radio station, kept it profitable and was in the best interests of our Black community.
I was like so many college-educated Black 20-somethings who looked down on the Black church. Yet Hobbs re-instilled in me love and respect for the institution reminding me that those in the church were human beings, trying to serve their Lord and God the best way they knew how. I learned from Al that God’s ministry comes in many forms and permutations, and while I might disagree, to always treat the church with honor and respect.
Al Hobbs was a player in the civic arena of Indianapolis.
He led the way to continue the Mozel Sanders Thanksgiving Effort after Rev. Sanders’ death in 1988. He helped Indy rally to support the Gaither Quints after their birth; and nurtured the downtown Back-to-School Parade in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s.
The Indianapolis Symphony’s annual Black History Month Concert, supported now by Bill Mays and the Indianapolis Recorder Newspaper, began as an idea from Al Hobbs’ creative, inventive mind.
Doing my job well at the radio station allowed Al Hobbs to flourish in the world of gospel music and also allowed him to be one of the creative geniuses that built and expanded Indiana Black Expo into the powerhouse it was.
It’s sinful that Black Expo’s board never turned to Al to revitalize it after Rev. Charles Williams’ death; the way Al’s beloved Gospel Music Workshop of America turned to him for leadership after GMWA’s founder, the legendary Rev. James Cleveland, died in 1991.
In the pantheon of our African-American community’s lions, Al Hobbs was among the greatest.
Next Friday and Saturday, those of us in Indianapolis and around the world will gather together to thank God for sending us Al “The Bishop” Hobbs.
Words are insufficient to express the debt I have to Al for helping make me the person I’ve become. My extremely deepest sympathies to his children Alex, Asha and Bridgett and Al Hobbs’ extended family.
Al “The Bishop” Hobbs is now reunited with his devoted Gabrielle, gospel legends, Rev. Charles Williams, former WTLC colleagues and more in heaven’s celestial gathertorium.
Goodbye and well done, God’s good and faithful servant.
