U.S. Magistrate Judge Dennis Hubel

1947-2019

The U.S. District Court of Oregon Historical Society notes with great sadness the sudden passing of U.S. Magistrate Judge Dennis Hubel on September 16, 2019.

Born in New York City in 1947, Dennis Hubel moved with his family to Oregon when he was three. A graduate of Portland’s Marshall High School, he pursued undergraduate and graduate studies in electrical and nuclear engineering at Cornell University and the University of Washington. After active duty in the Navy on nuclear submarines, Judge Hubel turned to the law and obtained his J.D. cum laude at Northwestern School of Law at Lewis and Clark College in 1976.

A trial attorney specializing in insurance and professional liability litigation, Judge Hubel practiced in Portland from 1976 until 1987 when he joined the Karnopp Petersen firm in Bend. Judge Hubel continued his litigation practice from Bend even after he was appointed part-time U.S. Magistrate Judge in 1995, joining Judge Owen M. Panner as the second lawyer in federal judicial service from the Karnopp firm. Judge Hubel returned to Portland in 1998 when he assumed a full-time judicial appointment.

Throughout his career, Judge Hubel made professionalism, gender-fairness and mentoring a focus. He supported this commitment with countless hours of service to task forces, commissions, and committees as a member or chair and by teaching Professionalism as an adjunct professor at his alma mater. Judge Hubel gave similar service in support of the work of magistrate judges at the district, circuit, and federal levels, and he has been a long-serving board member of the U.S. District Court of Oregon Historical Society. Judge Hubel assumed Recall Status on April, 23, 2014. On the occasion of the unveiling of his judicial portrait in April 2016, he quoted Judge Owen M. Panner, reminding those assembled, “Our profession has one reason for existence and that is to solve people’s problems.”  Our condolences go out to his wife Marcia Hubel, his daughter Kinsley, son Grayson, and their extended family and friends.