I flew from New York City to San Antonio, Texas, on May 21, 2025. I had a connecting flight and two-plus hour layover at William P. Hobby Airport in Houston, Texas (also known as “Houston Hobby”). I took advantage of the layover to walk around and see the sights at Hobby (much like I did in Atlanta in 2021). One of the most interesting sights was a small display dedicated to the man in whose honor the airport is named, former Texas Governor William P. Hobby. I thought it would be fun to write a short photo post documenting the display and learning about Hobby along the way.
The Hobby display is tucked into the corner of a long corridor in the airport. On the back wall we see the gubernatorial portrait of Hobby. The glass display case closest to us is about Howard Hughes, but the one closer to Hobby’s portrait is about Hobby.
The frame and lighting made it difficult for me to take a good photo of the Hobby portrait. You can see an archived capture of the Hobby portrait from the Texas State Preservation Board website.
The plaque next to the Hobby portrait shows that he lived from 1878-1964 and lists four major events — one posthumous — from his career.
- Lt Governor of Texas: 1915-1917
- Governor of Texas: 1917-1921
- Publisher of the Houston Post: 1924-1969
(The third bullet point indicating that Hobby was publisher of the Houston Post from 1924-1969 appears to be a typo. Hobby died in 1964 and as we will see, the display later notes that he was publisher of the Houston Post from 1924-1964.)
It notes additionally that the airport, formerly known as Houston International Airport, was renamed in William P. Hobby’s honor in 1967.
Now we move to the first quarter of the display case. Let us begin with the top. We see a photograph of Hobby as Governor with a shovel — standing off to the right in uniform is General John J. Pershing. The description is difficult to read in my photo, so I quote it below:
Reproduction of a 1920 photo showing Governor Hobby breaking ground on the pecan tree planted by General Pershing at the Rice Institute, now Rice University.
Dominating the top of the display case is a large commemorative token featuring Hobby’s name, likeness, and dates of birth and death. We will save the campaign button for the moment. On the side of the display we see the beginning of a timeline showing key events in Hobby’s life. I quote from the display below:
- 1983: “The Hobby family moved from Livingston, TX, to Houston, TX, William enters Houston’s High School.”
- 1895: “William Hobby becomes a circulation clerk, and later business writer for the Houston Post.”
- 1904: “William Hobby becomes the founder and president of Houston’s Young Men’s Democratic Club. He serves as chairman of the delegation for the sixteenth Congressional District at the 1904 Democratic State Convention.”
The photo in the display for the 1904 event shows Alton B. Parker, who was the Democratic nominee for president that year (he lost the general election by a wide margin to Theodore Roosevelt).
Above you see a close-up photo of the Hobby campaign button. The description indicates that it is a replica of a 1918 button for Hobby’s gubernatorial bid.
I moved to the next quarter of the Hobby display to photograph three more timeline events.
- 1907: “William Hobby moves to Beaumount to become editor and owner of the Beaumount Enterprise. He later becomes President of Beaumount’s Chamber of Commerce.”
- 1914-16: “William Hobby is elected the 24th Lieutenant Governor of Texas.”
- 1917: “William Hobby becomes the 26th and youngest Governor of Texas in 1917, upon the resignation of James Ferguson.”
Ferguson was removed from office, leading to Hobby assuming the governorship. He was 39 years old when he became governor. His record as the youngest Texas governor would be short-lived. The 30th Governor of Texas, Dan Moody, was just 33 when he took office on January 18, 1927 (Moody remains the youngest governor of Texas).
The third quarter of the Hobby timeline begins with his 1918 election as governor.
- 1918-21: “William Hobby is elected the 27th Governor of Texas. Among many accomplishments, Hobby approves the right to vote for women, and grants state funding to school and highway projects as well as drought relief.”
- 1924: “Hobby becomes president of Houston’s Post-Dispatch (later Houston Post) from 1924 until 1964. Later, with the help of his future wife, he improves not only the newspaper’s circulation numbers, but also its reputation.”
- 1931: “William Hobby marries Oveta Culp; first director of the Women’s Army Corps, first secretary of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, and a chairperson of the board of the Houston Post.”
Oveta Culp Hobby lived from 1905-1995. She was commissioned as a colonel in the Women’s Army Corps in 1943 and served as the first United States Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare (today the Department of Health and Human Services) under President Dwight Eisenhower from 1953-55. (She had many other roles and accomplishments in what was a lengthy career.)
We reach the final quarter of the display’s Hobby timeline.
- 1932: “William Hobby Jr. is born, followed five years later by his sister Jessica. William Jr. serves as the 37th Lieutenant Governor of Texas from 1973 to 1991. Jessica becomes a noted conversationalist, and journalist.”
- 1955: “William Hobby becomes Chairman of the board of the Houston Post Company. Oveta serves as President and editor of the Houston Post.”
- 1964: “Hobby passes away. In 1967, Houston’s Municipal Airport is renamed in honor of his leadership not only to the state of Texas, but to the city of Houston.”
Hobby’s son, William P. Hobby Jr., remains the longest-serving Lieutenant Governor of Texas at 18 years.
We conclude with the text of the reverse side of the commemorative Hobby coin/token we saw the front of earlier in the article:
William Pettus Hobby was born in Moscow, Texas in 1878. At fifteen, his family moved to Houston where he became a newspaper clerk, writer, editor, and later publisher. He became politically active, serving as Texas Lieutenant Governor, and subsequently Governor of Texas from 1917-1921. Post politics, Hobby served as president of the Houston Post and led the Houston Post company to expand into Houston’s radio station KPRC and television station KPRC-TV. In 1967, a few years after his death, the Houston Municipal Airport was renamed William P. Hobby Airport in his honor.
This concludes our look at the William P. Hobby corner of the William P. Hobby Airport in Houston, Texas.
