Diana Hobby, an academic, philanthropist, and editor, died on July 4 in Houston after battling cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. She was 83 years old.
A native of New York City, Dr. Hobby was a 1952 graduate of Radcliffe College. She moved to Washington with her husband who was in the U.S. Navy. While in the nation’s capital she earned a master’s degree in English literature from Georgetown University and worked for the Central Intelligence Agency.
When the couple moved to Houston, Hobby became the book editor for the Houston Post. She earned a Ph.D. at Rice University with a dissertation on William Butler Yates. She served as associate editor of Studies in English Literature, a scholarly journal published by the university from 1979 to 1991. Her husband, William, served as lieutenant governor of the state of Texas.
The Hobbys were major benefactors of Rice University. In 2010, the university established the Hobby Center for the Study of Texas.